China's market regulator is set to meet solar industry representatives on Friday to address pricing compliance, as overcapacity keeps fueling a price war that continues to erode manufacturers' profitability.
China’s market regulator is set to meet solar industry representatives on Friday to provide guidance on pricing compliance and the implementation of industry cost-accounting standards, local media outlet Cailianshe reported on Wednesday. The meeting comes as the sector remains weighed down by a protracted price war fueled by excess production capacity. Meanwhile, other solar markets continue to expand, such as in France, where EDP completed a 0.3 MWp solar plant for Snop, or in Asia, where the Asian Development Bank financed Timor-Leste’s first solar-storage plant.
According to Cailianshe, the meeting aims to curb what authorities describe as irrational competition in the photovoltaic sector. China’s market regulator is thereby renewing a crackdown on so-called “involution-style” competition, a form of rivalry authorities consider destructive. Seen as a symptom of economic malaise, the phenomenon has triggered brutal price wars that have squeezed margins across several industries, from electric vehicles to lithium batteries, cement and food delivery.
China’s industry ministry had already pledged, in July a year earlier, to curb disorderly price competition in the solar sector, where many of the leading companies have posted losses for years. That pledge followed calls from top Chinese economic policymakers to crack down on price wars. However, the push did little to reduce the overcapacity still weighing on solar prices.
According to earnings guidance released earlier in July, some top manufacturers still expect their first-half losses to rise, reaching billions of yuan. Friday’s meeting is expected to allow the regulator to clarify how the new cost-accounting standards will be applied, at a time when the sector’s profitability remains under pressure.
EDP has commissioned a rooftop photovoltaic installation in Étupes for automotive parts maker Snop, the first step of a European partnership targeting around 5 MWp of installed cap
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