Published : 3 weeks ago, on 15/11/2024

By John Revill, Marleen Kaesebier

ZURICH (Reuters) -Solar panel maker Meyer Burger said on Friday its future looked uncertain after its biggest customer pulled out, sending the struggling Swiss company’s shares crashing to new record lows.

Meyer Burger, one of the few European solar panel makers left after the market was saturated with cheaper Chinese imports, saw its stock plunge 72% following its announcement.

Trading was temporarily halted in its shares on the Zurich stock exchange after Meyer Burger said renewable energy company DESRI had terminated its accord with immediate effect.

Meyer Burger said regardless of whether the termination was valid, the step is likely to adversely affect its financial restructuring efforts, which it described as highly advanced.

Assuming that such financial restructuring fails, the company may no longer be in a position to continue as a going concern,” Meyer Burger said.

The news comes on the heels of a series of setbacks for Meyer Burger. In March, the company said it would close a plant in Freiberg, Germany. In August, it halted plans for a plant in Colorado, saying it was no longer financially viable.

In September, Meyer Burger announced plans to cut nearly 20% of its workforce, which then numbered 1,050. Its CEO and CFO both left, with chairman Franz Richter taking charge.

With the likely introduction of higher tariffs in the United States, the business model of Meyer Burger making solar cells in Germany and selling them in the U.S. is no longer sustainable,” said Bernd Laux, an analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank.

DESRI was its biggest customer by far, he said, estimating that Meyer Burger was expected to get up to almost 90% of its 2025 and 2026 sales from DESRI.

During the first six months of 2024, Meyer Burger’s operating loss widened to 322 million Swiss francs as its sales fell to 49 million francs from 97 million francs a year earlier.

The company’s woes show the difficulties facing European solar manufacturers as they battle competition from China.

China was expected to have more than 80% of the world’s solar manufacturing capacity going into 2026, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Its domination comes after years of subsidies, driving oversupply that has triggered a collapse in global prices.

(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and John Revill; Editing by Rachel More and Chizu Nomiyama )