Meyer Burger announces closure of Freiberg plant

The solar company Meyer Burger has announced that it is preparing to close its plant in Freiberg, Saxony. The Swiss manufacturer, which is based in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, announced on Friday that this would take place in stages. Initially, production will be discontinued in the first half of March. The company expects this to result in considerable cost savings from April. The closure will then come into effect at the end of April.

Instead, the solar module manufacturer intends to ramp up production in the USA, it said. Meyer Burger had also repeatedly raised the possibility of this step recently.

The Group justified the move by stating that "there has not yet been a decision on political support measures to remedy the current market distortions caused by oversupply and dumping prices for solar modules".

Meyer Burger claims that its Freiberg factory is the largest solar module production facility in Europe. 500 people are employed at the Freiberg site. Other manufacturers in the solar industry have also recently threatened to close local plants: China is flooding the market for solar modules with price dumping and financial support from the state is needed to maintain the industry in Germany.