Nikkei: Panasonic To Close Solar Cell Factory In Hungary

(RTTNews) - Panasonic Corp. (PC) plans to close its sole European solar cell plant in Hungary next March and dismiss about 500 workers at the factory, the Nikkei reported.

As part of a reorganization of production facilities, the Hungarian factory reportedly will end production in September. The closing will leave the firm with one solar cell factory each in Osaka and Shiga prefectures, plus another in Malaysia, the report specified. The report also added that the Equipment from the Hungarian facility will be transported to the other plants.

The company reportedly plans to sell some 675,000kw of solar cells worldwide in the fiscal year ending March 2014, up 25% from the prior year.

The Japanese market growth along with the recent weakening of the yen, prompted Panasonic to shift production from Europe to Japan, Nikkei noted.

With foreign firms aggressively marketing their own low-priced cells, Panasonic hopes to improve profitability by realigning its global network.