Chinese solar shares surge after reports of visits from Musk delegations
Workers inspect solar panels at a photovoltaic power station on a hill in Linyi, Shandong province, China Aug 11, 2018.
PHOTO: Reuters file
BEIJING/LOS ANGELES — Chinese solar shares jumped in morning trading on Wednesday (Feb 4) after local media reported delegations sent by Elon Musk visited various companies in the sector days after Musk announced plans to build large-scale solar cell production in the US
The CSI All Share Solar Power Equipment Sub-Industry Index rose 6.8 per cent by the lunch break, while the CSI SH-HK-SZ Solar Power 50 Index was up 5.6 per cent.
A team sent by Musk recently visited several photovoltaic companies in China, including those involved in equipment, silicon wafers, battery modules and perovskite technology, according to a story publicised on Tuesday by Sina Finance, a private Chinese media company, that cited sources in the Chinese solar industry. The story did not name any companies.
Shortly afterwards, state-backed media group 21st Century Business Herald reported Chinese solar giant JinkoSolar had confirmed a visit from a team sent by Musk.
JinkoSolar shares soared 20 per cent on Wednesday to their daily limit. Trina Solar shares were up nine per cent in afternoon trading.
Tesla and JinkoSolar were approached for comment about the visits and had not yet responded in the short time before this article was published.
Musk announced plans to build 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar cell capacity in the US during a Tesla earnings call last week. Several days earlier at Davos he had said the US could produce all its electricity needs from solar power.
"The solar opportunity is underestimated," he said on the earnings call.
"We're going to work towards getting 100 gigawatts a year of solar cell production, integrating across the entire supply chain from raw materials to already-finished solar panels."
The US solar market is heavily protected by tariffs designed to stop imports of cheaper panels and cells from China and Southeast Asia, where many Chinese companies have subsidiaries.
However many US domestic producers still have links to Chinese manufacturers.
The US installed 11.7 gigawatts in the third quarter of last year, with more than 30 GW installed across the first three quarters.
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