Comtec Solar negotiates more wafer supply deals with US clients

Jul 23, 2014 - Chinese solar wafer maker Comtec Solar Systems Group (HKG:0712) said today it is in talks with two new potential US customers to secure additional wafer off-take commitments for its new plant in Malaysia.

"Due to the estimated growth in demand from our existing customers and potential new customers, we plan to further expand our production capacity in Malaysia for approximately 300 MW," the company said. The expansion will kick off during the second half of 2014 and will be concluded within a year.

The Malaysian monocrystalline ingots and wafers plant entered into trial production in June and is expected to reach its initially planned capacity of 300 MW in the third quarter of the year. According to Comtec Solar, boosting its capacity in the country will lower labor, production and transportation costs and also bring incentives from the Malaysian government. In addition, the company aims to deepen the relations with its customers from Malaysia and strengthen its market positions outside China.

Comtec Solar CEO John Zhang Yi told the South China Morning Post in May that the company intends to gradually move its production to Malaysia due to the US’ plans to impose more anti-dumping charges on imports of China-made solar equipment. Actually, the Chinese company has been pondering the move to Malaysia for more than a year as it has a major customer there, Zhang Yi mentioned in the interview with the daily. The company is exporting products to the Malaysian plant of US solar company SunPower Corp (NASDAQ:SPWR).

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