Kevin Surace, founder and CEO of Serious Materials think U.S. greentech companies can not make money in China yet
U.S. greentech companies are facing two main challenges entering the Chinese market: intellectual property and price.
“Everyone talks that China is going to go green, but when you go there and you see them build the absolutely cheapest thing with absolutely no codes that they can do,” rants Kevin Surace, speaking at SDForum’s “Green and Clean” event last night.
The Serious Materials‘ founder and CEO said he spent quite a lot of money figuring out how to make money in China and compete with Chinese products that are not made in an environmentally acceptable way; he points to dry wall products costing as low as 10 to 15 cents a sheet in China.
“They talk about green but then behind it everybody is paid off. Between the intellectual property issues and the fact that they don’t want to pay a dime for anything, I don’t know how I’m going to get any money there,” complains Surace.
Europe and the Middle East are where the real money is for cleantech companies, not China
The Sunnyvale, Calif. startup is today in no hurry to put a factory in China at this time but that could change in the next 2 to 3 years.
“It’s going to happen because they can’t keep going like this. And China already surpassed the U.S. in CO2 emissions this year,” indicates Surace.
However, Europe and the Middle East are where the “real money” is today thanks to local government subsidies in Europe and several trillions of dollars of build committed in the Middle East.
