Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光), the nation’s top solar cell maker by capacity, saw demand and price pick up recently, shrugging off a sales slump as the US proposed to impose heavy anti-dumping taxes on local solar cell makers, a company executive said yesterday.
In a ripple effect from US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, a slump in prices for polycrystalline silicon solar cells has driven some manufacturers into the red, while monocrystalline silicon solar cells are profitable, Neo Solar chief financial officer Thomas Hsu (許嘉成) said.
Monocrystalline silicon solar cells account for 30 percent of Neo Solar’s shipments, he said.
Hsu was responding to recent speculation that local solar farms would drift into quarterly losses again last quarter.
Since July, “Taiwanese manufacturers have been seeking ways and markets beyond the US to brace for order losses, and their efforts have begun to bear fruit,” Hsu said.
“[Business] hit bottom in August. Demand and price have rebounded gradually as orders from Japan and Europe help supplement losses from the US,” Hsu said.
Neo Solar posted monthly growth in revenue last month to NT$1.96 billion (US$64.4 million) after monthly declines in the previous three months.
Factory utilization is expected to rise to 90 percent this quarter for the nation’s first-tier solar cell makers, Hsu said.
Solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) chief financial officer Jack Hsieh (謝祖葳) yesterday said that “the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes should only have a short-term impact.”
Global solar installation is expected to grow to 100 gigawatts in 2018, from 50 gigawatts this year, market researcher Solar Buzz predicted earlier this month.
In addition to the challenge from volatility in the global market, solar firms also face challenges in the domestic market, Solar PV Generation System Association chairman Paul Cheng (鄭博文) said yesterday.
The government cut feed-in tariff for renewable energy next year by 16.7 percent annually, which outpaced 4 percent reduction in cost by local firms, Cheng said.
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