French manufacturers are struggling to cope with Chinese competition

The Sistovy company, one of the last two manufacturers that assembles the panels near Nantes in France, is looking for a buyer.

boom of Photovoltaic Not everyone benefits. Although the French are installing more and more solar panels on their roofs to generate electricity, very little is produced in France.

Faced with Chinese competition, one of the last two manufacturers that assembles panels in France is looking for a buyer as quickly as possible. The company is Sistovy, located in Carquefou near Nantes: 87 employees, and 15 years of existence.

The production line stopped

At the Lower-Atlantic factory, only one of the two production lines is operational. However, the machines still smell new. “We finished fully installing this production line last October,” Paul Toulouse, general manager of Sistovi for two and a half years, explains.

“Today, we produce 300 to 400 panels per day. Unfortunately, part of this production is stored, as the order book is not sufficient to sell all this production.”

Paul Toulouse, General Manager of Sistowy

at franceinfo

Panels are twice as expensive in China

Paul Toulouse explains that the collapse in orders would have started last summer due to Chinese competition. No longer having access to the American market, Chinese manufacturers are selling their solar panels to Europe and “Half the price of their panels”Paul Toulouse explains, which illustrates his point.

“Today, if you are a person, and you want to equip your home with photovoltaic panels (Editor’s Note: For global installations, in addition to Panel), French panels will cost you about 1,000 euros more on a bill of around 8,000 euros to install compared to Chinese panels. Everything that makes a brand quality is no longer enough to convince consumers to pay this price difference.”

To limit the damage, Sistovi reduced assembly rates from January. From now on, Sistovi’s two production lines operate alternately, with two teams taking turns: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The management thus terminated the temporary contracts. Inadequate strategy: Management is therefore looking for a buyer by mid-April. The announcement upsets employees like 46-year-old Yannick Fasil. This line driver joined the team 11 months ago.

“I made this choice to make solar panels, saying to myself that it is a format for the future. The choice to make something in France that will allow us to avoid global warming, so that solar panels have a French name and existence. And to see this project fall apart, it’s disappointing. is, there’s no other word. It’s a total disappointment.”

“We have been promised for years that we will be protected”

Also delusional for 41-year-old Amelie Sicard. Sistowy’s purchasing manager for four and a half years recalls the government’s speeches on reindustrialisation and French sovereignty: “That For years we have been promised that we will be protected, if Europe and France can finally put up barriers or, in any case, equality in relation to this competition, which is unfair, can help us.

Discussions are currently underway across Europe to change the rules and promote French and European producers. But these new measures will come “too late” for Sistovi’s current management. According to Paul Toulouse, significant effects will not be felt for two years.

The Director General calls on Europe and France to support local businesses and “Access to the European market for imported panels made slightly less easy”. So France stays “Master its energy transition”, it urges the development of a robust field for both assemblies and components. Because if Sistowy assembles its panels in Carquefou, the group imports photovoltaic cells from China, like most of its competitors.