German Solar Glass Producer GMB Files for Insolvency

Europe’s last solar glass manufacturer Glasmanufaktur Brandenburg (GMB) has stopped production at its Tschneritz facility, in Germany’s Brandenburg region, and has filed for bankruptcy on July 4, as confirmed by the European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC).

The halting of the plant move will affect the 243 employees who were already on reduced working hours. Restructuring efforts to keep the plant open will now continue with the insolvency administrator, according to managing director Nico Succolowsky.

“The difficult economic situation in the European solar industry has so far prevented a restructuring solution, despite intensive efforts and investments by the company and the majority shareholder,” he said.

The company’s insolvency has been expected for some time. Last January, the district administrator of Spree-Neisse, Harald Altekrüger, sent a letter to Germany’s federal and state governments, demanding the rescue of regional glass production and describing the situation at GMB as “precarious”.

“Production conditions in the industry are difficult. Rising and continuing energy prices and competitive pressure from highly subsidized Chinese suppliers are also placing a heavy burden on other companies in the region,” Altekrüger explained at the time.

In February, Brandenburg’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Daniel Keller wrote to the German federal government and EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, to advocate for a resilience bonus to protect the domestic solar glass industry.

Keller also called for an extension of the European Union’s anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures to counter subsidized Chinese imports. His predecessor had already made a similar request.

“The EU is knowingly running into dependence on Chinese solar glass, even though the European PV sector is to be expanded,” Keller said. “Our glass product itself is high-quality, but pricewise, it’s not marketable on the global market. Accordingly, we have the result today,” he said.

For Christoph Podewils, ESMC secretary general, the filing was inevitable given the pricing pressure by an influx of low-cost solar modules from China.

“It might turn in a huge loss for the industry. GMB is among the few suppliers of solar glass [that is] free from the toxic heavy metal antimony. Such product properties should be rewarded in public and private procurement schemes. They do make a difference, both to keep the European manufacturing industry running and to safe[guard] the environment,” he told OPIS.

GMB has been producing solar glass for 15 years.

–Reporting by Benita Dreesen, bdreesen@opisnet.com