Challenges Facing Europe's Sole Solar Glass Manufacturer: GMB

The only solar glass manufacturer in Europe, GMB Glasmanufaktur Brandenburg GmbH (GMB), is facing difficulties due to competition and declining demand for low-priced products from China. The company has applied for short-term work subsidies.

Short term work allowance is a welfare provided by the German government during economic downturns to support businesses and employees, resulting in a corresponding reduction in employee hours and wages.

It is understood that GMB is part of the Interfloat Group, with Borosil Renewables, an Indian solar glass manufacturer, holding 86% of the shares from October 2022, and Blue Minds Company holding the remaining shares.

According to Borosil director Ashok Jain's statement during the Q2 2024 financial conference call, GMB's operations in Germany are facing significant challenges. Local demand is only 40% of production capacity, and although factories maintain high production utilization rates through orders from the United States and the European Union, these orders are priced lower and cannot fully fill the demand gap.

Jain pointed out that although France, Italy, and Austria have taken measures to support domestic component manufacturing, these policies have not yet had a significant impact on overall demand, while Germany is still evaluating relevant policies. Due to the lack of basic tariffs (BCD) or anti-dumping protection in Germany and the European Union, local market demand has been suppressed, and many local downstream customers have withdrawn from the market.

Jain added that due to the high production costs in Europe, the company currently has no intention of outsourcing production in Germany.

In contrast to the German market, Borosil's market demand in India continues to grow. The company announced the expansion of its production capacity from 1000 tons/day to 1500 tons/day, mainly driven by the Indian Ministry of Finance setting import reference prices to curb cheap dumped imports from China and Vietnam.

Former Meyer Burger CEO Gunter Erfurt criticized on LinkedIn that German policies lack support for local industries and are unable to compete with China's highly subsidized products. He said, "Solar energy is the new oil, but we are 100% dependent on China, which is simply crazy

In response, Borosil Chairman Pradeep Kheruka hopes that the new German government can provide clear policy direction for local production capacity of renewable energy equipment.