The nation’s top three solar cell makers yesterday posted drastic annual declines in revenue for last quarter, as deep as 36 percent, as prices fell due to US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on Taiwanese and Chinese solar products.
Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光能源), the nation’s largest solar cell maker by shipments, said its revenue plunged 34.24 percent to NT$1.66 billion (US$53.29 million) last month from the previous year.
That brought the firm’s revenue last quarter to NT$4.63 billion, down 36.37 percent from the previous year and 34 percent from the previous quarter.
As revenue last month grew 12.91 percent from February, Neo Solar said it indicated that market demand is on the rise and it expects growth momentum to sustain after the Chinese government announced it would raise its solar installation target to 17.8 gigawatts this year.
Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) saw a 45 percent annual decline in revenue last month to NT$1.1 billion, pushing its first-quarter revenue down 30.02 percent year-on-year to NT$4.19 billion.
Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶) reported an even bigger annual decline in revenue of 50.3 percent last month to NT$830 million, leaving its first-quarter sales 28.32 percent lower year-on-year at NT$3.07 billion.
However, Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s largest solar wafer maker, reported an 8.2 percent sales increase from the previous year to NT$1.25 billion last month, supported by an increase in shipments.
In the first three months of this year, the firm’s revenue increased 6.5 percent to NT$4.03 billion from the same period last year.
Green Energy yesterday said solar prices would stabilize in the second half of this year due to growing global solar installation.
The company plans to fully utilize its annual 2.7 gigawatt capacity to expand its market share in the high-end solar wafer segment, it said.
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