Flamboyant CEO of Solarworld has failed to turn around the beleaguered German solar producer despite all his bravado. Solarworld<\/strong> has played an instrumental role in instigating USA for imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties<\/a> against the Chinese made solar cells and panels. The company also tried to do the same in Europe, but better sense prevailed. EU and China came to a compromise leading to volume and price constraints for Chinese made solar imports. Solarworld has been running large losses in the last 3 years and has failed to come out of the rut. While the top solar panel producers such as Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Trina (TSL), Jinko (JKS) etc. have started to make profits, Solarworld reported another massive loss even as its revenues have kept shrinking.<\/p>\n Solarworld has an unsustainable business model in which it manufactures high cost solar panels in Europe and USA. Its products do not have any quality advantage, which would allow it to offset the high cost. The company has a miniscule marketshare and has been running into liquidity issues. Only a large cash infusion by a Qatari<\/strong> fund<\/strong> helped stave off a bankruptcy. However, it led to a huge haircut for shareholders. The company remains a shadow of its former self, when it was the largest integrated solar panel maker in the world. It remains to be seen how long Solarworld can survive<\/a>. The company is the only large panel maker left in Germany and recently bought the operations of Bosch for a negative sum. Manufacturing in Europe is no longer profitable, given the massive cost and scale advantages enjoyed by the Asian producers. The surviving Western solar producers such as First Solar<\/em> (FSLR) and Sunpower<\/em> (SPWR) also have their factories in Malaysia and Philippines respectively. REC Solar<\/em> has also built a large integrated factory in Singapore after closing most of its operations in Europe. More than 50% of the global demand is now emanating from Asia so it also makes sense to build factories in Asia from a marketing and logistics view.<\/p>\n