Solar panel producer’s stock price takes hit after axing U.S. plans, staying in Germany

The stock price of Swiss solar panel manufacturer Meyer Burger has plunged after the company announced it would not follow through on plans to open a new factory in the U.S. and instead continue to focus on its production sites in Germany, news station n-tv reported. On Tuesday, the stock price stood at 1.94 Swiss Franks, less than one percent of the 200 Swiss Franks at which the company’s stocks were valued one and a half years ago. Meyer Burger had said that it struggled to finance its expansion plans in U.S. state Colorado, adding that the factories in Arizona as well as in eastern German state Saxony-Anhalt would suffice to cover its production plans in the foreseeable future.

Contrary to earlier plans, the German solar cell factory will be kept open and “form the backbone” of Meyer Burger’s supply. Given current market conditions, this would be the “most economical option,” the company said. According to Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), the company had planned to move its entire production to the U.S. to benefit from subsidies granted by the administration of president Joe Biden under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and make the company more competitive with respect to Chinese manufacturers. However, the company could not finance the investment in Colorado, estimated to range at about 450 million Swiss Franks, partly due to cost increases in the U.S., the NZZ reported.

Meyer Burger said it would work on a restructuring programme that is supposed to lower costs in the long run. The solar cell manufacturer initially had bet on a new support scheme by the German government, but this was scrapped following the budget crisis of Scholz’s coalition that resulted from a court ruling in late 2023 declaring large parts of climate and transformation funding as unlawfully booked.