Q-Cells Cuts 500 Workers, Posts €696.9 million in Loss
Q-Cells, which has struggled to deal with a market slump, said Thursday it is cutting 500 jobs and implementing other measures to reduce production costs by 25 percent. (...) Q-Cells is shutting down older production lines at its factory in Thalheim because it no longer has the scale or technical ability to make cells at least as cheaply as its competitors, the company said.(...) Solar cell pricing fell about 20 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter this year, Q-Cells said. The company said the contracts it has signed with its wafer suppliers have become too expensive.
The solar industry moved from a boom in 2008, when companies worked quickly to boost production, to a bust in 2009. The credit crunch has made it difficult for developers to line up money to build solar power plants. The global market is so saturated with unused solar panels that one research firm recently predicted that the glut would last until 2012.