Panasonic said on Friday that it would invest 45 billion yen ($582 million) to build a plant for solar cells and modules in Malaysia in a move to increase its share of the global market. The factory will also produce wafers and have a production capacity of 300 megawatts a year, the company said. Panasonic, based in Osaka, Japan, intends to sell modules worth 1.6 gigawatts worldwide in the year ending March 2016, Masato Ito, an executive officer, said at a news conference. The company’s previous target was 1.5 gigawatts. The company picked Malaysia for the new plant to hedge risks of a strong yen and for its reliable infrastructure for power and water, Tetsuhiro Maeda, a senior vice president of Sanyo, a unit of Panasonic, said at the conference. Production will begin in December 2012 and the plant, which will be built in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park in Kedah, in northern Malaysia, will employ about 1,500 people.
SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/business/panasonic-plans-a-plant-for-solar-equipment.html
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