Storm shuts Canadian Solar plant

Canadian Solar has shut down its Funing solar cell factory in Jiangsu in China to assess damage caused by a tornado.

The company said the tornado hit the factory on the afternoon of 23 June and also injured several workers.

Canadian Solar said it has both casualty and property insurance for its facilities, inventory, business interruption insurance, as well as health and medical insurance for all its employees.

It is reviewing the extent and scope of this coverage with its insurers but said it expects to “recover substantially all of its financial losses through insurance”.

The company’s other wafer, cell and module manufacturing facilities in China and abroad are not affected.

The Funing factory is the newer and smaller of the Canadian Solar’s two solar cell factories in China.

Canadian Solar said it was expecting production from Funing to be approximately 267MW in the third quarter of 2016, representing 15%–20% of its solar cell requirements for the quarter.

The company now plans to increase output at its Suzhou solar factory, ramp up production at its new cell plant in Thailand and buy additional solar cells from its long-term third-party suppliers.

“As a result, the company expects to fulfil its module delivery commitments and maintain its annual module shipment guidance,” Canadian Solar said.

Image: Canadian Solar