Five months ago, First Solar was celebrating making the millionth solar module at a plant it had built in Frankfurt, to double its production in Germany, the world’s largest market for solar power.
The party did not last long. On Tuesday, the company, which is based in Arizona, announced that it would stop all of its German production as part of a broad restructuring plan that will cut its global work force by 30 percent, or 2,000 workers, and sharply reduce its global production capacity.
“We need to resize our business to a level of demand that is highly reliable and predictable,” Mark R. Widmar, the company’s chief financial officer, told investors on a conference call Tuesday. “We do not see a business case for continuing manufacturing operations in Germany.”
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