Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光), the world’s largest solar cell maker, yesterday said a strong rebound in demand might help expand this quarter’s revenue from NT$4.99 billion (US$157 million) last quarter.
The rebound could also help improve its profitability, Neo Solar said in a statement.
The company lost NT$492 million in the first quarter, which was a second straight quarterly loss. The company had not released last quarter’s figures.
“An uptick in solar cell prices in recent months indicates that market demand is improving gradually. We expect the momentum to help raise prices and our gross margin,” the company said in a statement.
“The growth may come from an increase of solar system installation targets in the US and China, as well as rising demand from emerging markets, including India, the Middle East and Latin America, as governments launched policies to encourage the use of green energy,” Neo Solar said.
“Looking ahead, market demand is quite strong, leading to good order visibility in the third quarter,” the company said.
That would support a continued expansion in shipments this quarter, the company said.
Coupled with a gradual rise in average selling prices and greater contribution from higher-margin products, Neo Solar expects its revenue and bottom line to improve this quarter.
Revenue last month slid 5.16 percent to NT$1.71 billion, from June’s NT$1.81 billion, which was a six-month high. During the January-July period, cumulative revenue plunged 32.21 percent to NT$11.33 billion from NT$16.72 billion a year earlier.
Neo Solar’s upbeat outlook corresponds to market researcher TrendForce Corp’s (集邦科技) observation.
The Taipei-based researcher said in a report on Thursday that “solar orders flooded in throughout the second half of last month.”
“Robust demand from China, the US, Japan and India helped lift factory utilization rates [of solar firms],” TrendForce said.
“Order visibility reaches more than three months,” TrendForce analyst Angus Kao (高嘉熙) said in the report.
“The growth momentum should extend to the end of this year, while price could rise slightly,” Kao said.
High-efficiency solar cells from local manufacturers climbed to between US$0.313 and US$0.318 per watt this month, compared with a range of US$0.31 to US$0.315 per watt last month, Kao said.
“The slight price increase, however, will only slightly lift the gross margins of solar cell makers,” Kao said.
Solar cell makers “are still facing an uphill job to make a profit,” he said.
Solar cell maker Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶) on Thursday reported revenue of NT$1.48 billion last month, rising 50.6 percent from NT$917 million a year earlier and 3.6 percent from June’s NT$1.43 billion.
The company attributed last month’s growth to higher shipments and increases in average selling prices, saying the upward trend in price might continue amid strong demand.
Solar wafer supplier Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) said revenue dropped 2.2 percent annually, but rose 3.1 percent monthly to NT$1.19 billion last month.
The company said factory utilization remained at 95 percent last month.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last