Canadian Solar Inc. , one of the world’s largest solar power companies, recently announced that a severe tornado damaged its solar cell factory in Funing County, Jiangsu Province, China.
The tornado occurred in the afternoon of June 23, 2016 and caused property damage and personal injuries. The Funing solar cell facility is currently shut down while the Company assesses the extent of the damage. The Company carries both casualty and property insurance for its facilities, inventory, business interruption insurance, as well as health and medical insurance for all its employees, and is reviewing the extent and scope of this coverage with its insurance carriers. At this moment, the Company 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.
Funing is the newer and smaller of the Company’s two solar cell factories in China. The Company was anticipating that solar cell production from the Funing cell factory would reach approximately 267MW in the third quarter of 2016, representing 15-20% of its solar cell requirements for the quarter. The Company now plans to cover its solar cell needs by increasing the output from its Suzhou solar cell factory, ramping up production at its new cell factory in Thailand and by purchasing additional solar cells from its long term third-party suppliers, who have agreed to supply the additional solar cells. As a result, the Company expects to fulfill its module delivery commitments and maintain its annual module shipment guidance.
“Our thoughts are with the families of Canadian Solar employees and the local residents impacted by the severe weather. We have immediately dispatched our internal emergence response team from our other facilities in China to help our employees in Funing and people in the local communities. We are assessing the situation but do not expect it to have a material impact on our business,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar.