Chinese solar shares surge after reports of Tesla visits

By Lewis Jackson

BEIJING, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Chinese solar shares jumped in morning trading on Wednesday after local media reported Tesla staff visited various companies in the sector days after Elon Musk announced plans to build large-scale solar cell production in the U.S.

The CSI All Share Solar Power Equipments Sub-Industry Index rose 6.8% by the lunch break, while the CSI SH-HK-SZ Solar Power 50 Index was up 5.6%.

Tesla staff recently visited several photovoltaic companies in China, including those involved in equipment, silicon wafers, battery modules and perovskite technology, according to a story publicised on Tuesday by Sina Finance, a private Chinese media company, that cited sources in the Chinese solar industry. The story did not name any companies.

Tesla did not immediately respond to questions about the reported visits.

Elon Musk announced plans to build 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar cell capacity in the U.S. during a Tesla earnings call last week. Several days earlier at Davos he had said the U.S. could produce all its electricity needs from solar power.

"The solar opportunity is underestimated," he said on the earnings call.

"We're going to work towards getting 100 gigawatts a year of solar cell production, integrating across the entire supply chain from raw materials to already-finished solar panels."