Four Chinese solar equipment manufacturers have received delisting warningsfrom overseas stock markets, as orders shrink and profits slump.

  LDK Solar Co Ltd, China's largest solar wafer manufacturer in terms of capacity,and a major producer of polysilicon and solar modules, informed its shareholderson Saturday that it received a notification from the New York Stock Exchange thatit has to bring its share price above $1 within six months of Nov 5, or be delisted.

  The move on LDK follows similar actions made by the NYSE on Chongqing-basedDaqo New Energy Corp on Aug 22 and Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd on Sept 10 andby Nasdaq on JA Solar Holdings Co on Oct 11.

  With net losses of $220 million in the second quarter and a debt ratio of 93percent in the first half, LDK sold 19.9 percent of its shares to a State-backedcompany in late October.

  Its share price surged by 21 percent on the day of the announcement, but stillremained below $1.

Company representative Li Longji said there had been no major recent developmentsthat would likely increase its share price.

  But he told the 21st Century Business Herald on Tuesday that based on new investmentand new orders, the company is resuming its idled production capacity, and around70 percent of its total production capacity for silicon wafers has been restarted.

  Suntech said on Thursday that it plans to cut two of its three production shiftsin the United States and 50 jobs,blaming oversupply of solar panels in the global market and a tariff recently imposedby the USgovernment.

  Chinese solar companies have expanded aggressively in recent years.

Suntech's share price climbed to $88 in 2007, and LDK saw its price rise tomore than $73 by 2009.

The installed capacity of solar power in China increased over the past decade,from 45,000 kW to around 3 million kW by the end of 2011.

  The country has become the world's biggest solar equipment producer, accountingfor more than 70 percent of global solar module output, with 90 percent of thesemade for export.

  However, since the price of polysilicon dived in 2009, and the EU started cuttingsubsidies to the solar industry in 2011, Chinese solar producers have seen theirprofits slide, leaving excess production capacity across the industry.

  The situation worsened in May after the US decided to impose heavy tariffs onChinese-made solar panels, claiming that Chinese companies were dumping their productson the market. The European Union may also adopt similar duties later this year.

  "These are tough times for the Chinese solar industry. Most companiesare trying to cut costs by upgrading their technology, slash their payrolls or reduceoutput," said Zhao Yuwen, director of the photovoltaic special committee ofthe Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

  China's Energy Policy 2012, a government white paper issued last Wednesday, reaffirmedthe government's commitment to fully developing the potential of solar power. Itplans to increase its solar power generating capacity sevenfold by 2015, accordingto the white paper.

  A key method of doing that is to allow photovoltaic solar power producers toconnect to the national grid free of charge, in a bid to boost its sources of renewableenergy.

  China State Grid Corp, the nation's largest power grid operator, announceda series of measures in late October to facilitate the free connection of solarpower plants to the grid, which experts hope will overcome a bottleneck that hasstifled domestic demand for solar panels.