Tournaire forced to stop solar panel production in southern France - report

Aug 29, 2013 - French group Tournaire has been forced to stop solar panels production at its plant in Alpes-Maritimes department as the facility crumbled under a loss of EUR 5 million (USD 6.6m), French business news portal Usine Nouvelle said yesterday.

The unit could not survive due to the unfavourable development of the entire solar energy industry in France, the drop in subsidies and competition from Chinese groups. Five of the 12 employees at the plant were already laid off.

Now, Tournaire wants to sell its automatic production chain for solar panels but the company is not very optimistic whether it will be able to find a buyer. Only foreign investors may be interested in the equipment since the situation on the solar panels market in France is too difficult for local players.

Tournaire's decision comes at a time when the European Union (EU) managed to negotiate minimum prices and quotas of Chinese solar panel imports.

Otherwise, parent company Tournaire continues its existence, focusing mainly on production of aluminium and plastic packaging for the chemicals sector.

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