yes, that article was announcing the formation of the cartel. the past events it reported were the results of competition, not the results of the anticompetitive price-fixing, whose beginning the article was reporting on. the price-fixing is what happened for the following 4½ years
drops in prices below profitability are, counterintuitively, something that happens in a healthy market. there is always some volatility, so some of the time prices are too high, and some of the time they are too low, and in a rapidly growing market, this can be pretty extreme
i don't see how it makes sense to describe the chinese solar industry in 02018 as 'bloated' if its production that year was 130 gigawatts (minus a few percent for foreign companies) and its production this year is 600 gigawatts. you must think it's super-mega-bloated now; do you think it's going to fall to 100 gigawatts? do you expect record low prices to suppress demand somehow?
it is certainly true that china's market is not open to foreign companies
but i think chinese companies own 95% of the market now mostly because of exports, not because of domestic chinese projects. they took over the market in the 02010s, and at that point the biggest projects were in spain and germany, not china
drops in prices below profitability are, counterintuitively, something that happens in a healthy market. there is always some volatility, so some of the time prices are too high, and some of the time they are too low, and in a rapidly growing market, this can be pretty extreme
i don't see how it makes sense to describe the chinese solar industry in 02018 as 'bloated' if its production that year was 130 gigawatts (minus a few percent for foreign companies) and its production this year is 600 gigawatts. you must think it's super-mega-bloated now; do you think it's going to fall to 100 gigawatts? do you expect record low prices to suppress demand somehow?
it is certainly true that china's market is not open to foreign companies
but i think chinese companies own 95% of the market now mostly because of exports, not because of domestic chinese projects. they took over the market in the 02010s, and at that point the biggest projects were in spain and germany, not china