Longi’s new project CHINESE photovoltaic giant Longi Green Energy Technology plans to invest 3.2 billion yuan (US$440.7 million) in a next-generation solar module project. Longi will build a production facility for high-efficiency solar modules with Hybrid Passivated Back Contact technology with an annual capacity of 12.5 gigawatts in Xixian New Area in Shaanxi Province, the Xi’an-based company announced Friday. The project is expected to begin production by the end of the year and achieve its planned capacity by next June. Lawsuit SHENZHEN-BASED Transsion Holdings, a smartphone and telecom service provider, said that U.S. chip giant Qualcomm demands a globally uniform rate and is suing the company for excessive license fees. Transsion’s sales network covers over 70 emerging markets, including some countries in Africa and South Asia, where some patentees do not own or own only a few patents. Qualcomm is suing for patent infringement in India and has filed similar claims in Europe and China. Wave of bank mergers THE number of Chinese rural banks that have merged with each other or been absorbed into bigger lenders since the beginning of the year is already four times that of the whole of last year as the structural reorganization of the country’s small lenders gains pace to mitigate risk, according to yicai.com. Almost 40 such micro lenders have been merged or absorbed so far this year, with most of the takeovers by either rural commercial banks, urban commercial lenders or joint-stock banks. Market insiders predict the trend will accelerate. | 