Solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) yesterday posted a 83 percent quarterly decline in net profit for last quarter to NT$27 million (US$0.9 million) as unit prices fell about 10 percent.
In the first quarter, Motech made NT$153.35 million in net profit. Gross margin last quarter shrank to 5.5 percent from 8.7 percent in the previous quarter.
Looking ahead, Motech said it was optimistic about the second half of this year, on expectations that demand from Japan and China would pick up in the final quarter of this year.
The company said the impact from the US’ proposed anti-dumping tax on Taiwanese and Chinese solar cell companies would be short-term and less severe than most analysts thought.
Motech said it has submitted comments on ministerial errors to the US Department of Commerce, requesting the department cut its proposed anti-dumping tariff of 44.18 percent, the highest among local solar cell makers.
The company said it expected the department to announce a new rate at the end of this month at the earliest.
The new import tariff on Motech’s solar cells could be the lowest tax rate among local peers, the company said.
To boost demand, most Taiwanese solar cell makers have seen their gross margin fall into negative territory as they have cut their prices to about US$0.32 per watt, the same as the prices offered by Chinese solar cell manufacturers, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday in a report.
Separately, Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s largest solar wafer maker, posted a bigger quarterly loss for last quarter at NT$238 million as price declines again drove its gross margin into negative territory.
That was the 13th quarterly loss registered by the company. Green Energy lost NT$131 million in the first quarter. Gross margin fell to minus-4 percent last quarter, compared with 5 percent in the first quarter.
In the first half of this year, Green Energy lost a total of NT$369 million, an improvement from a loss of NT$1.27 billion in the same period last year.
Green Energy said wafer prices are stabilizing as demand is picking up in the second half of the year.
The company expects its factory utilization rate to be more than 90 percent this quarter.
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