Japanese electronics giant Panasonic said Friday it will close its only European solar cell plant in Hungary, resulting in the loss of 550 jobs.<\/p>\n
The assembly factory in the city of Dorog will end production in September before its official closure in March, a Panasonic spokeswoman in Tokyo said.<\/p>\n
But the firm will maintain its overall global solar cell production level by moving the European workload to other solar cell factories in Japan and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
The decision came as the European solar cell market shrinks, partly due to cuts in government subsidies.<\/p>\n
Japanese market solar cell market has grown, thanks to public incentive programmes for renewable energy.<\/p>\n
“This sector constantly experiences dramatic changes of demand. Our decision is to deal with the changes in the sector,” the spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to increase our cost competitiveness and profitability,” she said.<\/p>\n
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