SolarWorld to axe 500 temporary jobs

German photovoltaic (PV) products maker SolarWorld (ETR:SWV) will let go about 500 temporary employees because of the increasing price pressure.

For now, permanent staff will not be affected, company spokesman Milan Nitzschke said.

SolarWorld will axe 300 temporary workers at its plants in Freiburg at the start of October, and a further 200 at Arnstadt from December. With the move, the company is responding to a decline in demand and severe competition. Nitzschke said that Chinese solar module makers are again dumping products at prices below the production cost due to a slowdown on their home market.

China recently surpassed Germany as the world’s number one solar market in terms of cumulative PV installations, according to GTM Research. The latter says that over 10 GW were installed in June as developers rushed to meet a feed-in-tariff (FiT) drop deadline. In the second half (H2) of the year, however, demand is expected plunge.

Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBK) research analyst Vishal Shah said in an update in June that investors are rightly concerned about the risk of solar oversupply from H2 2016.

Last month SolarWorld reported a consolidated net loss of EUR 23 million in H1 on revenues of EUR 434 million. At the time CEO Frank Asbeck said that even though price pressure has been increasing since the end of June, he believes that the firm will be able to maintain and further grow its market position.

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