Kmareka.com

In concert with Obama’s meeting with Chinese leader Hu and talk of more global cooperation between China and the US (see WSJ Article), comes news that Chinese Solar Power giant Suntech Power (STP) is going to build a manufacturing plant in Arizona. This is good news indeed. We here in America need the confidence of foreign businesses willing to locate on our soil. From the article:

From the U.S. China Green Tech Summit today, Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), announced that its first U.S. manufacturing plant for the growing North American market would be located in the Greater Phoenix, Arizona area. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 30 megawatts (MW) and is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2010.

The announcement makes Suntech the first Chinese cleantech leader to bring manufacturing jobs to America. Suntech selected the Greater Phoenix area for its plant because of Arizona’s leadership in research through Arizona State University, and statewide renewable energy policies, particularly its Renewable Energy Standard and distributed generation set-aside, as well as a supportive local business climate represented by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. The Suntech U.S. plant will employ over 75 full-time employees at launch and may double its staff within the year as the North American market develops.

In the interest of full disclosure, we own 100 shares of STP although we’re still waiting to be back in the green for the price we paid. Every time it has dipped back to 13 over the past couple of months, I have considered buying more, but never worked up the nerve. BTW, none of this should be construed as financial advice or direction in any way — as a mere clinical social worker, I live in mortal terror of someone suggesting that I am capable of giving real financial advice. I am excited about the collaborative possibilities for China and the US, however, and want to share my first-hand knowledge of a new instance of such collaboration.