Meyer Burger Technology AG nach Fusion mit 3S
-- By Aitor Hernández-Morales, Karl Mathiesen, Stuart Lau and Giorgio Leali
February 10, 2021, 7:23 pm | View in your browser
Nearly every solar power panel sold in the European Union has its origins in China’s oppressed Xinjiang region.
The solar industry and Brussels lawmakers argue Europe’s renewable energy push should not come at a human cost amid long-standing international concern over reports China has detained 1 million people with Muslim backgrounds in camps in Xinjiang and is putting them to work.
“Everybody knows what’s going on in China, and when facilities are based there you have to accept that there’s a high possibility that forced labor will be used,” said Milan Nitzschke, president of EU ProSun, an alliance of solar businesses seeking to promote sustainable, solar manufacturing based in the EU.
EU lawmakers are urging the bloc to implement trade bans, applying to all industries including solar panels, if companies are implicated in human rights abuses.
“Import bans need to complement as a last resort if forced labor is involved in the production, like in Xinjiang,” said Green MEP Anna Cavazzini.
Suspicions about every panel
For the past decade Beijing has been carrying out a campaign to detain and “reeducate” the Muslim-majority population of the Xinjiang region.
Human rights groups have alerted that state-run reeducation centers double as forced labor camps, with detained people obliged to work in low-skilled, labor-intensive sectors such as cotton picking. But recent reports out of the region suggest the Xinjiang government has also been focusing on “upskilling” the workforce and putting them to work in more specialized sectors.
That’s of particular concern to the global solar industry given Xinjiang’s outsized role in the production of polysilicon, a material used to make photovoltaic (PV) cells.
“Nearly every silicon-based solar module — at least 95 percent of the market — is likely to have some Xinjiang silicon in,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BloombergNEF.
Industry analyst Johannes Bernreuter added that last year roughly 45 percent of the global supply of solar-grade polysilicon came from the region.
Raw polysilicon is transported to factories — usually outside Xinjiang — and melted into cylinders, known as ingots. Because it’s blended with polysilicon produced in other regions, it’s difficult to trace material that could potentially come from forced labor camps in Xinjiang, Chase and Bernreuter said.
For any single solar panel “the mathematical probability is relatively high” it has some material produced in the province, said Bernreuter.
An open secret
Beijing insists the camps — which it calls “vocational training facilities” — are simply “helping people of all ethnic groups secure stable employment” and argues that this is “entirely different from forced labor.”
The China Photovoltaic Industry Association said accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang were ”the lie of the century fabricated by several institutions and people from Western countries.”
In Europe, industry players said the potential use of forced labor to produce material included in solar panels imported into the EU was an open secret.
Industry group SolarPower Europe said it was investigating the situation in Xinjiang with its membership and looking at different options to ensure no forced labor was used in the PV manufacturing process.
“We cannot accept that such practices take place in the solar PV sector, which is a leader in sustainability and a key enabler of the energy transition,” said SolarPower Europe CEO Walburga Hemetsberger.
The group said its members were using supply chain management guidelines, certifications and standards to ensure that forced labor was not used, and that it was evaluating how to encourage best practices across the industry.
Distancing measures
If the EU’s solar sector wants to distance itself from solar components manufactured under questionable circumstances in Xinjiang, it would have several ways of doing so.
Bloomberg NEF’s Chase said one option would be to continue accepting components made with polysilicon from China, but insisting that material produced in Xinjiang be exempted from the mix blended in factories.
“There’s plenty of non-Xinjiang polysilicon,” Chase said — around a quarter of the global market in 2021 is expected to come from the U.S. and the EU. But she said enforcing the exclusion would be complicated and likely make little difference for the plight of any workers.
Xinjiang polysilicon would simply shift to the domestic market and customers in the EU and the U.S. “will pay an almost unnoticeable amount more for modules,” said Chase. “Honestly, it is unlikely to be a big deal for solar, but good news for companies that make silicon outside Xinjiang.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, European manufacturers believe the answer is repatriating the industry back to the EU and using tariffs if necessary.
“Solar components can be produced in Europe,” EU ProSun’s Nitzschke said. “The companies making them were here until 2012 but they went bankrupt when the tariffs used to address Chinese overproduction and public financing were removed, allowing their companies to undercut us in terms of price.”
Nitzschke argued the EU should revise its trade deals and ensure that the same standards on human rights and forced labor that apply in Europe be extended to imported products. “We can’t have a level playing field if there’s ethical leakage, and you could prevent it by applying tariffs to products that don’t meet our standards.”
SolarPower Europe’s Hemetsberger said she didn’t favor trade tariffs due to their often counterproductive effect on European solar growth. “The best way of ensuring that imported goods abide by strict human rights protocols and ethical standards is improving the level of transparency of the global value chain so that EU-based suppliers can make informed decisions.”
The European Commission has said the EU’s solar capacity needs to grow five-fold by 2030 to meet its climate targets. Hemetsberger said there was a “solar manufacturing renaissance” underway in Europe.
“Nearly all areas of the supply chain can be produced in Europe,” said Gunter Erfurt, CEO of Meyer Burger, a Swiss-German solar module production company that aims to reestablish solar’s industrial supply chain on the Continent, pointing out that solar-grade polysilicon is already produced at several sites in Germany.
“I have a lot of respect for the Chinese strategy because 10 years ago they understood what Europe is still struggling to grasp: that solar is the future,” he said. “EU leaders speak of batteries, electric mobility, hydrogen … But where is the electricity to produce those things supposed to come from? We are already the technological frontrunners, what we need now is financing to bring production back.”
Growing pressure on Brussels
Solar panels are yet another example of goods made with forced labor entering the EU market, raising criticisms from lawmakers and NGOs.
Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, expects the EU to step up scrutiny of imports from Xinjiang, including solar power panels.
“The pressure is piling on the Commission and member states that they have to use unilateral means to send China a message, such as screening of imported products,” said Wuttke.
While countries such as the U.S. have introduced trade restrictions for goods coming from Xinjiang, Brussels is taking more time while pledging to move against goods made with forced labor.
The Commission is working on a new tool — due diligence legislation — which would make EU companies accountable if their suppliers breach labor and climate laws. But MEPs would like the Commission to go even further to tackle serious situations such as the one in Xinjiang. Last month, the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee called on the Commission to introduce an import ban for “products related to severe human rights violations.”
“The EU due diligence legislation has a key role to play in that as it will help ensure that human rights are respected throughout our supply chains,” said MEP Cavazzini. She backs an import ban if suppliers are shown to be involved in human rights abuses.
The Commission is set to come up with its supply chain responsibility proposal by June after a public consultation ended this week.
According to Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, who is in charge of the file, new rules are likely to focus on so-called Tier 1 suppliers and to make reference to the International Labor Organization’s core conventions, which China committed to ratify under the new investment deal concluded with the EU.
“Expanding the use of renewables is of utmost importance in order to stop the climate crisis. But it cannot come at the cost of human rights,” said Cavazzini.
Related stories on these topics: Human rights, Renewable energy, Sustainability, Tariffs, China, Germany (in Energy and Climate), Germany (in Trade), European Commission (in Energy and Climate), European Commission (in Trade), European Parliament (in Energy and Climate), European Parliament (in Trade)
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https://www.pv-magazine.de/2021/01/26/...ch-durch-die-rechnung-macht/
https://twitter.com/meyerburger/status/1360091725264478210?s=20
https://www.ee-news.ch/de/article/45246/...-produktion-in-deutschland
mk von mbt: 1 milliarde, die 4 weltgrössten pv produzenten zusammen: 10 milliarden.
die letzten 20 jahre wurden die jährlichen produktivitätsfortschritte der branche ausschliesslich für preissenkungen eingesetzt; nun, wo pv in immer mehr märkten die günstigste form der energiegewinnung ist, sollten zukünftige produktivitätsfortschritte zumindest teilweise für margenverbesserungen genutzt werden können.
ich halte also nicht mbt für überbewertet, sondern sehe viel potential bei allen pv herstellern. die branche steht vor einem boom - und endlich dürften auch aktionäre davon profitieren...
Ein CEO, der über die Firma und die Technologie 100%ig in Kenntnis ist.
Ein Burggraben, da kein Technologietransfer nach außen mehr stattfindet.
Produktionsstätten und Mitarbeiterschaft in optimaler Abstimmung - plus politische Unterstützung.
Gebe kein gutes Stück aus der Hand!
Die Produkte von MBT werden seinesgleichen suchen. Die 1 Mrd. dürfte der Hauch des Vorgeschmack dessen sein, was die Unternehmung mittelfristig auf die Waage bringen wird.
Moderation
Zeitpunkt: 16.02.21 21:58
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Kommentar: Moderation auf Wunsch des Verfassers
Zeitpunkt: 16.02.21 21:58
Aktion: Löschung des Beitrages
Kommentar: Moderation auf Wunsch des Verfassers
der teilbereich longi solar macht 3,32 mrd $ umsatz, ich würde ihn mal ganz freundlich mit 2 - 2, 5 mrd euro bewerten.
de.longi-solar.com/
17.02.21, 07:26
Läuft immer besser bei unserer Perle! :-)
Mit den Amis kommt das "Big Money" aber auch gewisse Erwartungen und die damit verbundenen Risiken bei Nichterfüllung.
Die Aktie wird vermutlich erst einmal bis zur ausgegebenen Bewertung von Jefferies hochlaufen.
Werden spannende 2 Jahre mit MBT.
In den nächsten Tagen kommen Videos vom NebenwerteJunkie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbhIQmS2rdk
Durch den Schritt spart sich das Unternehmen jede Menge Logistikkosten und Aufwand.
Der sogenannte letzte Kilometer zum Endkunden ist vor allem bei PV Anlagen mit Abstand der teuerste.
"Meyer Burger wird zunächst als reiner Modullieferant an den Markt gehen und der Verkauf wird primär über den Fach- und Großhandel erfolgen."
Ich finde die Präsentation einfach nur richtig gelungen (die meisten von euch werden sie natürlich schon kennen).
https://www.meyerburger.com/de/investors/praesentationen/
Hier wird wirklich jeder Schritt erklärt und auch die zukünftigen Aussichten dargestellt. Hier kauft niemand die Katze im Sack.
Ich glaube der deutsche Markt wartet auf einen Anbieter wie MB. Hier wird auch ganz klar das Ziel vorgegeben mit den
Modulen Geld zu verdienen. Man sieht sich beim Wettbewerb in der Kategorie "hohe Marge". Anders als die Big Player Jinko, CS etc.
In 2021 und 2022 wird ja noch mit relativ geringer GW Zahl kalkuliert. Gerade im Bereich Einfamilienhaus geben die Menschen mit Sicherheit 2,3 Prozent mehr aus um Qualität Made in Germany zu erhalten. Bei den paar Modulen auf dem Dach fällt die Summe auch kaum ins Gewicht. Bei großen Parks sieht die Sache natürlich anders aus. Hier wird MB aber wohl erst ab dem Jahr 2023 wirklich mitmischen wollen.
Ich bin sehr zuversichtlich das mein Arbeitgeber MB als Lieferant aufnehmen wird und die Module ans Lager bekommt. Mal sehen ob die Wettbewerber auch alle Module von MB anbieten können. Ich denke das Unternehmen wird sich in Deutschland auf eine Handvoll
Großhändler festlegen.
Ich besitze einige Dächer in der Schweiz die auf die PV-Module warten. Der Zuschlag erhält nur derjenige, welche die MB-Module verbaut. Von zweien weiss ich, dass sie sich gerade darüber informieren.