中國太陽能巨頭尚德將被政府接管
KEITH BRADSHER 報道 2013年03月14日
Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
中國無錫，工人們在尚德的一家工廠里組裝太陽能組件。
太陽能行業高管和一名無錫官員周三表示，全球最大的太陽能組件製造商之一尚德太陽能電力有限公司(Suntech Power)幾乎用光了現金，行將被所在地無錫市政府控股的一家公司部分或全部接管。
前述控股公司無錫國聯集團總部行政辦公室接聽電話的一名女士表示，收購尚德的協議已經達成，尚德是在紐約證券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)上市的公司。該女士拒絕透露自己的身份。
尚德負責投資者關係的羅里·麥克弗森(Rory Macpherson)拒絕回應有關無錫國聯的問題，只在一封郵件中說，“不對市場謠言發表評論是我們的政策。”
尚德因必須在本周結束之前向可轉換債券的持有人支付5.41億美元（約合33.62億元人民幣），由此被推向財務崩潰的邊緣。去年7月，尚德透露公
司投資價值5.3億歐元（約合42.7億元人民幣）買入的德國債券可能會被證明是騙局，之後便停止公布財務報告。分析人士稱，尚德的現金儲備一直在減少，
最近幾個月，中國國有銀行已經不願繼續向其提供貸款。
公司稱，本周早些時候已同五分之三的債券持有人達成協議，暫緩兩個月支付，以便找到解決財務困境的辦法，但一些債券持有人對這項聲明表示質疑，稱甚
至都沒人找他們商議暫緩支付的事情。本周，尚德的可轉換債券的交易價格僅為其原來價格的30%。周二，尚德的股價以1.09美元收盤，當天的跌幅為
5.2%，過去十二個月的累計跌幅為63.2%。
截至亞洲時間周三晚間，仍不清楚尚德的債券持有人或長期蒙受損失的股東能得到什麼樣的條件。尚德的股東可能不得不同意併購，尤其是不先期申請破產免債的併購。
周二，尚德宣布即將關閉位於亞利桑那州固特異(Goodyear)的工廠，那裡將損失43個工作崗位。這家工廠將鋁製框架和電氣接線盒安裝在從中國
進口的太陽能電池上，這樣，完全出於組裝的太陽能組件就可以滿足《購買美國產品法》(Buy American Act)的要求。
尚德的崩潰，是中國綠色能源行業過去四年快速衰落的一個里程碑。中國把可再生能源作為自身複雜問題的解決方案，下的賭注比其他任何國家都要大。中國的問題包括相互關聯的兩個方面，一是嚴重的空氣污染，一是對從中東和非洲政局不穩的國家進口能源的嚴重依賴。
同時，中國地勢低洼、人口稠密的沿海地區非常容易受全球變暖的影響。位於華盛頓的能源部(Energy Department)估計，那裡容易因海平面上升而流離失所的人口比全球其他任何地方都多。
但是，事實證明，不管是從財務上說，還是從中國與美國及歐盟的貿易關係上說，中國發展可再生能源的方式都是毀滅性的。
國有銀行以優厚的條件向中國太陽能組件製造商貸出了180億美元，資助其產能在2008年到2012年間增長了十多倍。這導致太陽能組件的價格同期猛跌了75%，結果是中國公司去年每取得3美元的銷售額就要承受1美元的虧損。
巨額的貸款與極低的價格促使德國企業SolarWorld及其美國分公司分別在歐盟和美國發起了針對中國出口太陽能組件的反傾銷及反補貼訴訟。作為回應，美國向中國的太陽能電池和組件徵收了約40%的關稅，而歐盟的審議正處於收尾階段，預計將於今年夏天做出最初的裁決。
位於上海的諮詢公司Bennu Solar的董事總經理約塔姆·阿里爾(Yotam Ariel)稱，關閉亞利桑那州的工廠“再一次表明其處境艱難”。
位於俄勒岡州尤金的太陽能電池組件進口商Grape Solar公司的總裁袁海洋(Ocean Yuan)稱，無錫國聯接管尚德，將幫助市政府留住可能因公司倒閉而損失的約1萬個工作崗位，至少是留住其中的一部分。
尚德作為獨立企業的終結正值太陽能組件價格的長期跌勢可能企穩之時，但價格的企穩並不會使製造商得利。
袁海洋稱，隨着中國的國有銀行停止以極其豐厚的條件繼續放貸，該國的太陽能組件出口商失去了向買家放賬長達四個月的能力。他說，現在，就連中國大陸
製造商的台灣競爭對手都開始要求貨到付款，對那些本身不具備足以支撐庫存的高限銀行信用額度的美國太陽能組件安裝商而言，這一事態發展會讓它們財務承壓。
無錫國聯是一家大型企業。根據其網站的說法，該集團成立於1999年5月，由無錫市政府出資設立，目前擁有75家全資控股企業，總資產426億元人民幣，活躍於金融服務和地產行業。
無錫是一座大型工業城市，位於上海市西北120公里處。
尚德由施正榮一手打造，這名中國科學家曾在澳大利亞學習太陽能技術，10年前返回無錫創立了尚德。以發電容量計算，這家公司於2011年成為世界上最大的太陽能組件生產商，之後卻因貿易懲罰和財務問題而被迫減產。
施正榮博士之前得到了長期擔任無錫市市長的朱克江的有力支持。但是，習近平去年11月當選新一屆中共中央總書記後，黨內官員進行了大規模變動，朱克江也在去年初冬調往外地任市委書記。
上周初，尚德免去了施正榮的董事長一職。共產黨官媒人民網周三報道稱，尚德董事會已下令對尚德與施正榮私人持有的公司之間的交易進行內部調查。關於此類調查是否正在進行，尚德負責投資者關係的麥克弗森沒有作答。
翻譯：陳亦亭、黃錚
Chinese Solar Panel Maker on Financial Brink
KEITH BRADSHER March 14, 2013
One of the world’s largest manufacturers of solar panels, Suntech
Power, has nearly run out of cash and is poised to be taken over
partially or entirely by the municipal government’s holding company in
its hometown of Wuxi, China, solar industry executives and a Wuxi
official said Wednesday.
A woman answering the phone in the executive offices of the group
headquarters of Wuxi Guolian, the holding company, said that a deal had
already been reached for the acquisition of Suntech, which is traded on
the New York Stock Exchange. The woman declined to identify herself.
Rory Macpherson, Suntech’s director of investor relations, declined
to address a question about Wuxi Guolian, saying in an e-mail only,
“It’s our policy not to comment on market rumors.”
Suntech has been driven to the financial brink by an obligation to
pay more than $541 million to holders of convertible bonds at the end of
this week. It stopped releasing financial reports last year after
disclosing in July that it had invested in €530 million, or $690
million, worth of German bonds that might prove fraudulent. The
company’s cash reserves have been dwindling, according to analysts, and
Chinese state-owned banks have become reluctant in recent months to keep
extending further loans.
The company said it reached a deal with three-fifths of the
bondholders early this week to give it a two-month reprieve to find an
answer to its financial troubles, but some bondholders have questioned
the announcement, saying that they were not even approached about a
reprieve. Suntech’s convertible bonds have been trading this week for as
little as 30 cents on the dollar. Its shares closed at $1.09 on
Tuesday, down 5.2 percent for the day and down 63.2 percent in the past
12 months.
It was unclear late Wednesday in Asia what terms might be offered to
Suntech’s bondholders or long-suffering shareholders. The latter might
have to approve a merger, particularly if a merger were to take place
without an initial bankruptcy filing to erase debt.
Suntech announced Tuesday that it was closing its factory in
Goodyear, Arizona, at the cost of 43 jobs there. The factory put
aluminum frames and electrical junction boxes on solar cells imported
from China, so that the fully assembled solar panels would qualify for
“Buy American” programs.
The collapse of Suntech is a milestone in the precipitous decline of
China’s green energy industry over the past four years. More than any
other country, China had bet heavily on renewable energy as the answer
to its interlinked problems of severe air pollution and heavy dependence
on energy imports from politically unstable countries in the Middle
East and Africa.
China is also very exposed to global warming along its low-lying,
densely populated coastline, which the Energy Department in Washington
has estimated to have more people vulnerable to displacement from rising
sea levels than anywhere else on earth.
But China’s approach to renewable energy has proved ruinous, both
financially and in terms of trade relations with the United States and
the European Union.
State-owned banks have provided $18 billion in loans on easy terms to
Chinese solar panel manufacturers, financing an increase of more than
tenfold in production capacity from 2008 to 2012. This set off a 75
percent drop in panel prices over the same period, which resulted in
Chinese companies’ losing as much as $1 for every $3 in sales last year.
The huge loans and very low prices prompted SolarWorld, a German
company, and its American subsidiary to file anti-dumping and
anti-subsidy cases in the United States and the European Union against
solar panel exports from China. The United States has responded with
tariffs of about 40 percent on solar cells and solar panels from China,
and the European Union is concluding its deliberations and is expected
to deliver an initial verdict this summer.
Yotam Ariel, the managing director of Bennu Solar, a consulting firm
in Shanghai, said that the closing of the Arizona factory was “yet
another indication of a tough struggle.”
Ocean Yuan, the president of Grape Solar, an importer of solar panels
based in Eugene, Oregon, said that a takeover of Suntech by Wuxi
Guolian should help the municipal government save at least some of the
approximately 10,000 jobs there that could be lost in a liquidation of
the company.
Suntech’s demise as an independent company comes as the long decline
in solar panel prices may be leveling off — but not to the benefit of
manufacturers.
As Chinese state-owned banks have stopped extending credit on
extremely generous terms, solar panel exporters in China have lost the
ability to let their buyers wait as long as four months before paying
for deliveries, Mr. Yuan said. Now, even the Chinese manufacturers’
rivals in Taiwan have begun demanding payment on delivery, he said, a
development that is putting financial stress on solar panel installers
in the United States that may not have large bank credit lines
themselves to finance inventories.
Wuxi Guolian is a sizable enterprise. According to its Web site, the
company was set up by the Wuxi municipal government in May 1999 and now
has 75 wholly owned subsidiaries with total assets of 42.6 billion
renminbi, or $6.9 billion, active in financial services and real estate.
Wuxi is a large industrial city located 120 kilometers, or 70 miles, northwest of Shanghai.
Suntech was built by Shi Zhengrong, a Chinese scientist who studied
solar technology in Australia and returned to Wuxi a decade ago to build
what became in 2011 the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels by
gigawatts, before trade penalties and financial problems forced
cutbacks.
Dr. Shi enjoyed powerful support from Wuxi’s longtime mayor, Zhu
Kejiang. But Mr. Zhu was transferred early this winter to become the
municipal party secretary in another city, part of a large-scale
reshuffling of Communist Party officials following the selection of Xi
Jinping as the new general secretary of the party last November.
The Suntech board removed Dr. Shi as chairman at the start of last
week. The Web site of People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper,
reported Wednesday that the Suntech board had ordered an internal review
of transactions between Suntech and Dr. Shi’s personally held
businesses. Mr. Macpherson, Suntech’s investor relations director, did
not respond to a question about whether such a review was under way.
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