Local Solar Module Industry To Face Low Import Prices: Borosil’s Kheruka

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The domestic solar module industry will be forced to continue facing ‘unrealistically’ low import prices, said Pradeep M Kheruka, Executive Chairman of Borosil Renewables. Kheruka made these comments during a conference call with institutional investors and analysts
which was held on February 08. He further said that the ALMM mechanism remained suspended, keeping the door open for unrestrained imports of solar modules leading to a decline of 60% in prices of solar modules and there has been no significant jump in solar installations has been seen thus far.

“The solar installations in the current financial year for the 9 months were merely 6.5 gigawatts against 9.3 gigawatts achieved during the same period last year when we had achieved 12.6 gigawatts for the full year 2023,” he stated while adding that the overall demand for solar glass,
albeit at a reduced price, remains much larger than domestic production so far. Kheruka also emphasised that it is essential to bring back the ALMM mechanism from the 1st of April to have a continued robust demand for solar glass.

As far as sales are concerned, the Borosil Executive Chairman said that they will increase sales in the domestic market, which unfortunately is at very low prices given continued Chinese dumping which is affecting their average sales realization. We are constantly trying to improve performance by increasing productivity and controlling costs, he said.

Talking about Suryoday Yojana, Kheruka made a point that the scheme will give a much-required fillip to the rooftop solar program and generate demand for solar modules. It is expected that this policy will specify the use of domestically manufactured modules, but there is no clarity as yet, he said.

Furthermore, Kheruka also raised concerns about domestic selling prices vis-a-vis China while saying that the domestic selling prices continued to remain low after the discontinuation of anti-dumping duty against China in August 2022 as a result of dumping from China, Vietnam, and Malaysia despite a rise in the input prices. He also added, “On a sequential basis, the average selling prices during the quarter
showed a decline of 7% over the preceding quarter, as the dumping continued unabated and intensified”.

With that, Kheruka also delved into the position of solar module markets in other countries adding that in Turkey, the market continues to show
weak demand as the economy faces increased challenges arising from continued high inflation and very high interest rates. Later, he added that they expect a greater demand from the USA towards the end of 2024, as the local production of modules starts to pick up. Kheruka also said that low demand from Europe and Turkey which are our major overseas markets has led to a serious decline in exports from India.