(Yicai) Sept. 3 -- Longi Green Energy Technology has no construction plans in Europe, but the Chinese solar panel giant is very optimistic about emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America, which are experiencing rapid growth, its chairman said.

An increase in power supply is necessary for these emerging regions to develop, but setting up large-scale power systems there is relatively challenging, Zhong Baoshen noted at a performance briefing yesterday. Therefore, the characteristics of photovoltaic power -- low-cost, quick to build, and scalable -- make it well-suited to meet their needs, he added.  

The PV industry remains in a period of deep adjustment this year, and the overall expansion of Longi needs to be viewed rationally, its management noted while discussing the firm's intentions and plans for establishing factories abroad. Longi is still evaluating strategies due to the many factors to consider when building overseas plants.

"Considering that the industry is generally experiencing cash cost losses, wafer prices will only rise in the future and will not decline," Zhong said regarding Longi's recent hike of such prices. "Wafers supply will not increase due to price adjustments."  

It is very hard to predict future price trends in the PV industry because they are influenced by multiple factors, including supply and demand dynamics, business competition, and industry policies, Zhong noted. All segments are at low levels, so prices are likely to increase, but it is difficult to determine when it will happen, he added.

Regarding the medium- and long-term growth prospects of the PV industry, Zhong believes that it has shifted from a super-high growth to a relatively lower growth phase. "Over the past few years, the PV industry has often grown by more than 50 percent, so in the future, the annual growth rate will likely be between 10 percent and 15 percent," he said.

Longi had a net loss of CNY5.2 billion (USD736 million) in the six months ended June 30, compared with a net profit of CNY9.2 billion a year earlier, the Xi'an-based firm said in an earnings report released on Aug. 30. Its revenue fell 40 percent to CNY38.5 billion (USD5.4 billion).

Editor: Martin Kadiev