Solar cell maker Neo Solar Power Corp (NSP, 新日光) yesterday said that it plans to focus on higher-margin monocrystalline products, especially passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) solar cells, and gradually exit the cutthroat polysilicon solar cell market after two years of losses.
“It is difficult to make a profit from polysilicon [solar cells] given poor average selling prices,” a company official said by telephone under the condition of anonymity.
Because of an oversupply, mainly from China, the prices of polysilicon solar products collapsed last year, the official said.
Polysilicon solar capacity accounts for more than half of Neo Solar Power’s overall solar cell capacity of 2.2 gigawatts, while monocrystalline solar cell production makes up about 40 percent, or 900 megawatts.
PERC solar cells enjoy a premium of at least US$0.05 per watt over conventional monocrystalline solar cells, allowing manufacturers to make a decent profit, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said.
Neo Solar — which lost NT$2.71 billion (US$88 million) in the first three quarters of last year, after losing NT$1.46 billion in 2015 — has been struggling amid a supply glut and weak demand, while its expansion into the solar power plant business has not yielded significant results yet.
“We will carry out the new strategy this year,” the official said. “We hope to see improvements [in our bottom line] in the fourth quarter of this year,” the official said.
Asked about the latest ruling by the US Department of Commerce cutting tariffs on solar products made by Taiwanese companies, Neo Solar said it is not one of the companies affected by the ruling.
The company still has to pay an import duty of 19.5 percent.
However, local peers Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (中美晶) and Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) will only have to pay tariffs of 3.5 percent and 4.2 percent respectively.
In 2014, the US government announced anti-dumping duties of 11.45 percent to 27.55 percent on imports of solar cells made in Taiwan.
The latest ruling came after US authorities relaunched an anti-dumping investigation last year as some Taiwanese companies requested.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
HSBC Holdings PLC is deepening its commitment to Taiwan as the economy emerges as one of the bank’s fastest-growing markets globally, driven by an artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, expanding cross-border trade, and rising wealth creation. “The advantage that Taiwan has is a growth story linked to the semiconductor and broader AI industries, strong underlying corporate performance, and wealth creation,” said Surendra Rosha, HSBC’s co-chief executive for Asia and the Middle East, in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times on June 2, during this year’s HSBC Taiwan Conference. That combination has helped HSBC cement its position as the most profitable international
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS