‘Don’t underestimate’ efforts to curb price wars, China’s solar sector warns

China’s solar industry association has pledged to “fight to the end” to curb cutthroat competition driven by oversupply, vowing to restore fair market order through industry self-discipline.

“Don’t underestimate the determination behind the policy,” Liu Yiyang, executive secretary general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), said in a post on his private WeChat Moments social media feed, according to a report by Jiemian News, a business news website based in Shanghai.

“We will fight to the end to steer the solar sector out of cutthroat competition,” he said. “I’m confident that our efforts will be successful.”

Liu said China’s solar sector has been making supply- and demand-side efforts to phase out outdated capacity and restore fair market competition, warning that companies failing to exercise self-discipline and seeking to profit from vicious and unfair competition were “bound to fail sooner or later”.

According to his post, Liu’s pledge was aimed at addressing recent rumours, though he did not provide further details. Cailian Press, a financial news agency based in Shanghai, linked it to market speculation that a plan by solar companies to establish a platform for consolidating production capacity had been rejected by the government.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the CPIA described “recent online rumours” as “fake news”. Without providing further details of the rumours, it said the association and solar companies were steadily advancing efforts to tackle excessive competition.