Solar panel production projects in Vietnam are stalling mainly due to difficulties in the global solar panel market.
The general manager of Global Sphere, Nguyen Trong Nguyen, said a
partner withdraw from their solar panel production joint venture one
year ago.
The United Arab Emirates-based firm found
out that its Vietnamese partner, WorldTech Transfer Investment, did not
have sufficient financial security.
The project
manufacturing solar panels in the central city of Hue has a total
investment of 300 million USD invested by Global Sphere and WorldTech,
of which the former is responsible for 100 percent of investment capital
while the latter is to be responsible for building, managing and
controlling the plant.
Construction of the project
started in January 2013 in the Phong Dien Industrial Zone, Hue city. The
first phase of the project will operate after 30 months of construction
with an initial capacity of 60MW panels per year and then the annual
capacity will increase to 250MW panels in the second phase.
However, since January this year, the project has stalled and the Hue
Planning and Investment Department said they have not received official
announcement on either stopping or continuing the project from the
investors.
This is the third project of its kind
that has faced difficulties in investment and construction. The two
others include a project in Ho Chi Minh City with a registered capital
of 1.2 billion USD and a project in the central province of Quang Nam
with a registered capital of 390 million USD.
Last
year, First Solar, the US investor of a solar panel production project
in Ho Chi Minh City, announced a temporary stop to the development of
the project due to a negative balance of supply and demand in the world
market for the panels.
While the Indochine Energy
Industrial Company, located in Chu Lai Open Economic Region in Quang Nam
province, proposed to prolong construction of its project producing
solar panels because of difficulties related to market and production
technology.-VNA