Sun Power Philippines allots $1.3 billion for plant expansion
Paolo Joseph L., BusinessWorld , April 20, 2007
http://www.reed-electronics.com/semiconductor/articleXml/LN601025553.html
Laguna Technopark – Sun Power Philippines Manufacturing Ltd. plans to spend $1.3 billion to expand its solar cell-making facility over the next three years. The company, a subsidiary of California-based Cypress Semiconductor Corp. plans to make the Philippines its manufacturing hub for the solar cells that it exports to Europe, Japan and the US, said Sun Power Vice-President for Manufacturing Greg Reichow. Other emerging markets for its solar cells are South Korea and southern Europe.
Mr. Reichow said Cypress Semiconductor has already pulled out its solar cell production facility in China because the cost of solar cell production is cheaper in the Philippines than in other Asian countries. He noted that wages for “high-quality” workers in the country were lower compared with other countries. Of the planned spending, around $450 million will be used this year for a new manufacturing plant to be installed at the First Philippine Industrial Park in Batangas.
Sun Power, which has been operating in the Philippines since 2004, has 1,400 employees. It currently operates a 2.5-hectare facility in Laguna that produces a total of 110 MW of solar panels yearly. The new plant will be fully operational by next year and will be capable of delivering a total of 400 megawatts of solar panels yearly, Mr. Reichow said. Once operational by the third quarter of this year, the plant will likely produce 70 MW of solar panels.
Sun Power will employ 2,000 workers for the new plant, most of them engineers. Over the next three years, the firm will also put up a back office and a call center to service customers from around the world. Mr. Reichow said around $900 million would be spent in the next two years for the construction of additional solar cell manufacturing plants. He added, however, that Sun Power was still looking for possible locations.