CX Daily: Chinese Solar Giants' Shine Fades Amid Growing Product Glut
TOP STORIES
Solar /
China’s solar panel makers are suffering plunging valuations amid mounting losses as a price war triggered by overcapacity and weak demand takes a toll.
The industry, encouraged by government subsidies and policies aimed at limiting carbon emissions, embarked on rapid expansion in recent years to grab nearly 95% of global production capacity. However, that aggressive expansion strategy is now backfiring.
Typhoon /
Super Typhoon Yagi has killed at least four people and injured nearly 100 as it made landfall in southern China over the weekend.
The casualties were in China’s southernmost island province of Hainan, state broadcaster CCTV reported Saturday, citing provincial authorities. Wenchang, the city where Yagi landed Friday afternoon, suffered direct economic losses of over 32.7 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) — nearly equivalent to the city’s 2023 GDP — local officials said during a press conference Saturday.
China-Indonesia /
Indonesia is seeking Chinese investment in the new energy sector and called for joint development efforts, as the mineral-rich nation aims to strengthen its battery and solar photovoltaics (PV) manufacturing capabilities while working towards a green energy transition, according to the Southeast Asian nation’s vice foreign minister.
Indonesia’s lack of PV production capacity has been “one of the bottlenecks for Indonesia to build its renewable capacity,” said Pahala Nugraha Mansury, who was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in July 2023. Indonesia welcomes manufacturers in the sector from China, as well as from other countries, he said.
FINANCE & ECONOMY
Yuan /
The internationalization of the Chinese currency can play a greater role in strengthening trade and investment between China and Africa while reducing financial costs for businesses, according to senior executives of Standard Bank Group Ltd., the continent’s largest lender by assets.
“Africa needs more energy generation capacity and more transport infrastructure, and we need to manufacture more, including the most basic manufacturing on the continent,” CEO Sim Tshabalala told reporters at the bank’s Beijing office last week. “China needs and plans to shift higher up the manufacturing value chain. It plans to become a more service-oriented economy. And it wants to achieve peak carbon output by 2030 … The mutual benefits are massive.”
Foreign investment /
China has shortened its list of industries in which foreign businesses are either restricted or prohibited from investing, fulfilling a pledge to eliminate all limits on foreign investment in manufacturing, as policymakers attempt to revive inbound investment.
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The update to the negative list, released Sunday by the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), removed the requirement that publication-printing enterprises be domestically controlled. It also scrapped the ban on investing in the processing and production of certain traditional Chinese medicines.
Accounting /
China’s Ministry of Finance is seeking feedback on draft regulations that tighten filing requirements for overseas accounting organizations that conduct business there without establishing domestic offices.
The draft measures, published Thursday, are intended to strengthen oversight of foreign accounting organizations by enhancing the regulatory framework outlined in 2019 guidelines which cover them. Public comments are open until Sept. 30.
Quick hit /
Finance Movers and Shakers /
BUSINESS & TECH
Tesla /
Tesla is gearing up to bring its full self-driving software, known as FSD, to China and Europe by the first quarter of 2025, pending regulatory approval, according to a roadmap the electric vehicle (EV) giant released Thursday.
Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system is currently at Level 2 on the International Society of Automotive Engineers’ scale, meaning it still requires human supervision. Tesla aims to gradually improve the FSD system through continuous iterations, moving closer to achieving full autonomous driving.
Salt /
A new state-owned conglomerate will be created to take control of Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co. Ltd., which owns the right to exploit China’s largest region of salt lakes and flats and the mineral resources it contains.
State-run metals producer China Minmetals Corp. is set to hold 53% of the new company’s shares, the Qinghai provincial state-owned asset regulator is about to own 18.73%, and the regulator’s investment arm will hold the rest, Qinghai Salt Lake Industry said in a filing dated Sunday.
Long Read /