Lithuanian solar panel manufacturers say they are ready to face competition with cheaper Chinese imports.
Vitas Maciulis, president of the Lithuanian Solar Energy Association, does not expect the lifting of the EU duties on Chinese solar panel imports to lead to a drastic change in the market.
"We have to distinguished between two types of companies: those that manufacture modules and those that use them and install solar power plants. Of course, the lifting of the duties will lead to a decline in prices for Chinese modules and an influx of these products into Europe, which will bring prices for solar plants and their quality down," Maciulis said.
"However, that won't have a drastic impact on the market, because we already receive components of solar modules -- solar cells -- mostly from China. Prices for Chinese cells will fall, bringing prices for Lithuanian modules down, too," he said.
Andrius Karazinas, director of Solet Technics, which is part of the solar modules group Precizika, also expects prices for Lithuanian solar modules to go down following the European Commission's decision.
"It's good news for us, because Chinese businesses figured out how to circumvent these duties a long time ago," Karazinas told.
"Precizika's plant purchased photovoltaic cells from China. Prices for these cells should now drop by around 30%. So, we estimate that prices for our modules should decline by around 20%," he said.
Julius Sakalauskas, CEO at Soli Tek Cells, the solar cell and module production arm of BOD Group, says that his company is not afraid of cheap Chinese imports because it does not directly compete with Chinese producers.
"We have always fought for that import duty to be kept in place, but now that it has been cancelled, we'll compete," Sakalauskas told.
"We focus on specialized products, building-integrated solutions, which is a somewhat different market than Chinese products, and we don't directly compete with them," he added.
