Recruiting in China

Yingli Group in Baoding of Hebei Province announced in the end of November that it would recruit 2000 workshop operators. A photovoltaic enterprise with 26,000 staff recruits 2000, which is not a message worthy of reporting. However, on the background that there are a lot of negative messages in the whole photovoltaic industry like loss, shutdown and downsizing, recruitment at this moment indicates that the photovoltaic industry in the "severe winter" is changing positively.

After learning such a message, the reporter decides to go to Hebei. When entering the workshop of Yingli Group, the reporter felt it was in 2010 when the workshop was in full capacity. "2000 is only a conservative number and the number of recruits may increase as required." Zhao Zhiheng, vice chairman of Yingli Group discloses that the photovoltaic market demand has begun to change from the fourth quarter and Yingli is making preparation for the "coming of spring".

According to the financial statement for the third quarter, all photovoltaic enterprises still makes a poor achievement and the photovoltaic industry is still in a cold winter, so where does the spring come? Yingli views that the demand is changing.

Quick increase of trading volume in the rising markets represented by China is the brightest spot in the market in the second half of this year. It is estimated that the delivery volume of Yingli will reach 2.2 gigawatts this year, which will top other photovoltaic enterprises in the world this year. Among the sales volume, the Chinese market will account for 22.63 percent and other rising markets will also rise to 4.03 percent.

Wang Yiyu, chief strategy officer of Yingli predicts that China is expected to surpass Germany and become the largest photovoltaic market in the world next year, which is mainly due to the series of encouragement policies issued by the state in the second half of this year. 21- gigawatt installed capacity, roadmap of distributed power generation and quickly-issued measures for the implementation not only offer a clear development prospect for the domestic market, but also stimulate the enterprises?? passion for the market and strengthen their confidence in development.

There are also new opportunities in the traditional European and US market. With deep industrial adjustment, the photovoltaic power generation cost reduces quickly and the generation efficiency increases constantly. European Photovoltaic Industry Association made estimation in the end of 2011 that the total installation cost of photovoltaic system would be $2 per watt in 2015. However, to the end of November this year, the cost had been less than $2. Due to such a change, the cost of photovoltaic power paid by some users in the market such as Spain begins to be equivalent to the one of traditional power generation with no need for government subsidy, which is commonly called grid parity in the user end. Wang Yiyu reveals that presently some investors have begun to plan for the projects next year with the aim of selling electricity to users or electric power company through direct supply. It will be the coming of times with huge demand for the photovoltaic industry behind such kind of change.

Yingli predicts that the global market demand will be about 40 gigawatts next year. Among them, the European market will increase a little, which is mainly due to the rising markets in the Europe and those projects with no need for government subsidy; the total amount in the US will continue increasing; the Chinese market will be about 7 to 10 gigawatts.

"The spring is coming slowly but not all photovoltaic enterprises will enjoy it." Zhang Tianze, general manager of Dalian Liancheng CNC Mechanic Co., Ltd., a photovoltaic equipment supplier, views that for enterprises in the whole industrial chain of photovoltaic production, only those enterprises whose brand, quality, technology, cost, etc. can satisfy the market requirement will not lag behind after such a round of adjustment and integration. The incoming spring for the photovoltaic industry is one with threshold.