China Buying REC Solar for $640 Million Avoids Trade Spat

A Chinese company offered 4.34 billion kroner ($640 million) to buy REC Solar ASA, one of the last makers of solar panels in Western hands, a move that may help circumvent trade disputes in the U.S. and Europe.

The deal by a unit of China National Chemical Corp. would follow a surge in demand for solar panels, absorbing much of the production that companies supported by the government in Beijing built in the past decade.