Panasonic has announced its exit from solar cell manufacturing, citing cost-effective Chinese exports as the reason, as well as weak demand within Japan since the expiry of a domestic solar subsidy in November 2019. Panasonic’s Malaysian factory will be closed outright, whereas its factory in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, will see staff reassigned to more profitable areas once solar manufacturing ends in fiscal year 2022. The announcement comes after a cell manufacturing agreements fell through with GS-Solar in Malaysia in August, and another was cancelled with Tesla six months before that. Panasonic is a century-old business with hundreds of subsidiaries and $70 billion revenue, and its manufacturing capacity was only around 1 GW, so this is nothing significant to the company…