Eternit of Brazil has announced the decision to exit its solar PV production business
It blames competition from low-priced Chinese solar products for the move
Instead, it will now explore new trends in its core construction industry
Brazil’s roofing solutions company Eternit has announced the discontinuation of its solar PV production line, saying it was not viable despite its efforts. It blames competition from Chinese solar panels as the major influence for this decision.
In a statement to shareholders, the management said that the company sought alternatives to make its PV products more competitive, but it has taken the decision to discontinue the segment after a thorough analysis.
“The Company remains dedicated to identifying new trends in the construction industry, in which it operates in the construction systems segment, supplying products for dry construction,” it added.
Eternit diversified into the solar PV market in 2019 with the launch of a PV tile. The company earned a green patent for the Photovoltaic Cells and Manufacturing Process of Encapsulated Photovoltaic Cells in 2022. Later, in 2023, it started selling fiber-cement PV roofing tiles, ratified by Brazil’s National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro), which it said could be interchanged with traditional fiber cement roofing panels.
According to local media portal Invest Sustain, Eternit’s solar energy division’s losses have been weighing heavily on the company’s overall profits. Its exit from the solar market points to the challenging competitive scenario in Brazil’s solar industry when it comes to foreign manufacturers, which the government will need to address soon.
Meanwhile, Brazil is among some of the favored destinations for Chinese solar exports as bigger markets bring in protectionist measures like trade tariffs to support the local PV industry (see 2024 China Solar Module Exports Totaled 236 GW: InfoLink Consulting).
In the recent past, the European solar PV industry, particularly in Germany, has been very vocal about the impact of competition with lower-priced Chinese solar products. Several companies across the supply chain have either shut down their businesses or halted operations while waiting for government support (see Financial Difficulties Force More German PV Companies Into Insolvency).
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