Taiwanese solar cell makers are expected to benefit from a recovery in global solar photovoltaic installations next year as improving economies are helping developed countries continue with their clean energy subsidy programs, Taipei-based researcher Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) said yesterday.
Global solar photovoltaic installations are expected to grow 34 percent year-on-year to 7.18 gigawatts next year from this year’s 5.34 gigawatts, Topology said.
Installations may resume growth next year to US$30.35 billion in sales, up 22 percent from the US$24.9 billion estimated for this year, the researcher said. This year is expected to be the first with an annual sales decline, down 6.7 percent, on falling average selling prices, it said.
The growth would mainly come from a pickup in demand mostly in Europe, the US, Japan and China, Topology analyst Amigo Liu (劉舜逢) said during an industry forum arranged by the researcher.
“Following the end of the economic slump this year, the solar industry will shine again next year as governments refocus on green energy policies after the recovery,” Liu said. “I am also upbeat about Taiwanese solar companies.”
Price erosion is expected to slow this year as improving demand offsets oversupply pressure on pricing and gross margins after a deep decline this year, Liu said.
Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) expects Taiwan’s two largest solar cell makers — Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) and Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶能源) — to be the first to benefit from the recovery in solar installations, which the brokerage forecast would be a 40 percent year-on-year increase.
After diversifying into solar polysilicon and solar wafers, Motech should have an better cost structure next year than its rivals and it should show strong growth, coupled with a capacity expansion, Capital Securities said in a report.
Motech may see net income surge more than 15 times to NT$2.08 billion (US$64 million) next year, compared with NT$126 million this year, the report said.
The solar cell maker said earlier this year that it planned to expand capacity significantly to between 800 megawatts and 1 gigawatt next year, compared with 600 megawatts this year.
Riding on growing demand, Gintech may return to profit next year by posting earnings of NT$1.77 billion, from losses of NT$510 million this year, Capital Securities said.
Shares of Motech and Gintech plunged 2.65 percent and 4.38 percent to NT$128.5 and NT$96.1 respectively yesterday, while the benchmark TAIEX edged 0.12 percent lower.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day