22 April 2015 (10:19 UTC-07 Tango 01)/02 Ordibehesht 1394/03 Rajab 1436/04 Geng Chen (3rd month) 4713

“Our company suffered huge losses in 2014…..Our company has lost financing ability and suffered from a capital shortage. We can’t raise enough money to repay interest, despite all the efforts we have made.”-Baoding Tianwei

For the first time a government controlled Chinese company has defaulted on a massive loan.  Tianwei says it can’t even make the interest payment of 85.5-million yuan ($13.8-million USD)!

If you’ve followed my reports on the failed polysilicon factory in Pocatello, Idaho, then you’d know that Tianwei became the default owner of the troubled Hoku Materials plant, by becoming the only financier of the operation.

Hoku Materials (originally owned by Hoku of Hawaii) was to produce polysilicon for use in solar power products.  The Chinese solar power industry was happy to get involved, but in 2013 market prices for polysilicon hit record lows, then “…the Obama administration jacked up tariffs so high on Chinese polysilicon companies that it wasn’t worth it to do business in the U.S.”

Was the increase in tariffs by the Obama regime, which finally killed the Hoku Materials factory in Idaho, nothing more than economic warfare against China?

Tianwei operates a group of companies known as China South Industries Group, Tianwei Group, Tianwei USA, Tianwei Solution and Baoding Tianwei Solar Firms.

More Economic Decline: New owner of Pocatello’s Polysilicon factory gives up