China is No.3 in the PV Production Industry

China is a country of big numbers. And it seems the growth virus has infected the Chinese PV industry as well. Growth over the past few years has been impressive and shows even more ambition. In the 30 major companies involved at present, total available production capacity for cell and module production already exceeds 20% of the world’s total. 5 years ago, it was less than 1%. China is now the world's third country (just after Japan and Germany) in terms of solar cell production capacity, and this industry is still growing at more than 50% per annum. Based on the ambitions of the 20 cell manufacturers already active in this market, production capacity is expected to grow to 820 MW per annum in 2006. Several new cell and module manufacturers have started production over the past 4 years and are now growing towards the top-ten ranking of the world’s largest manufacturers. Currently, over 90% of all PV products produced (cells, modules) are being exported to Western countries, such as Germany, as well as to Japan and the rest of the world.