JA Solar Secures $68 Million Loan For 1.5 Gigawatt Vietnam Factory
Chinese solar manufacturer JA Solar announced last week that it had secured a $68 million loan with China Minsheng Bank for the equipment at the 1.5 gigawatt (GW) wafer manufacturing facility for its Vietnamese subsidiary.
JA Solar, which is the world’s third-largest solar PV module supplier according to figures published in May by data and analytics firm GlobalData, announced last Tuesday that it had finalized a long-term buyer credit loan agreement with China Minsheng Bank Corporation Limited Shijiazhuang Branch worth $68.4 million with a seven-year term.
The loan is to fund the acquisition of equipment for JA Solar Vietnam’s 1.5 GW wafer manufacturing facility, which the company has said will provide 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity by the end of 2018.
The Vietnam facility began construction all the way back in November of 2016 in an effort to further the company’s ability to ship products from countries other than China, which has been the target of trade barriers for several years now. “Building production sites in Vietnam can also strengthen our company’s strategic deployment in the world as well as the emerging markets,” said Baofang Jin, Executive Chairman and CEO of JA Solar, at the time.
This has only become more important in recent months as the United States has stepped up its trade restrictions against China under the leadership of President Donald Trump, who has recklessly initiated a trade war with his main economic rival.
JA Solar provided no additional information regarding the securing of the loan or the Vietnam facility.
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