Wuxi Suntech Back From Dead Eyeing 1.5 Gigawatt Shipments

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — Wuxi Suntech Power Co., the solar

manufacturer acquired earlier this year by Shunfeng Photovoltaic

International Ltd., plans to ship almost twice as many modules

this year, in the latest sign of a rebound.

“A lot of rumors said, ’Suntech is dead.’ But we were

here,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Luo said today in a

telephone interview.

The Wuxi, China-based company, bought by Shunfeng for 3

billion yuan ($490 million), may ship 1.5 gigawatts of modules

this year, Luo said. That’s up from 800 megawatts last year. One

gigawatt has already been shipped and production is approaching

the 2 gigawatts produced by the company in 2011 when Suntech was

the world’s largest producer.

“We’re hoping it’ll spike in the next two and half

months,” Luo said.

More than one-quarter of those shipments will be to Japan,

the world’s second-largest market according to data compiled by

Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Japan may install more than 13

gigawatts of capacity in 2015, second only to an estimated 15

gigawatts in China, the London-based researcher forecasts.

Suntech has only “one or two” major customers in China

because “we won’t participate in the price war,” Luo said.

“We will not compromise our quality at the cost of our

customers.”

Solar producers are benefiting from strong demand in China,

Japan and North America this year. Yingli Green Energy Holding

Co., the world’s biggest solar-module maker, in August forecast

shipments will rise as much as 18 percent from a year earlier to

3.8 gigawatts.

“Suntech’s brand still has a place in the international

market,” Han Qiming, a Shanghai-based analyst from SWS Research

Co., said by phone.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Justin Doom in New York at

jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:

Reed Landberg at

landberg@bloomberg.net

Iain Wilson

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