Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s biggest solar wafer maker, yesterday posted its third straight quarterly loss as stagnant demand continued to be a drag on solar prices.
During the quarter ending March 31, Green Energy’s losses narrowed to NT$255 million (US$8.45 million) compared with a net loss of NT$591 million in the fourth quarter last year, according to the company’s latest financial statement.
The Taoyuan-based company, which posted a net profit of NT$372 million a year earlier, said more moderate price declines and higher shipments of better-margin crystalline bricks helped shrink its net loss last quarter, the statement said.
Gross margin improved to minus-10 percent last quarter from minus-12 percent the previous quarter, but deteriorated from 10 percent a year earlier, the statement showed.
Revenue last quarter fell 2 percent quarter-on-quarter and 50 percent year-on-year to NT$2.63 billion, it said.
Green Energy said in March that it had lowered factory utilization to about 80 percent from 90 percent the previous month, as well as adjusted its product portfolio to cope with dwindling demand.
Green Energy president Swean Lin (林士源) said that this year “will be another tough year for the solar industry.”
The company’s revenue last month fell 8.48 percent month-on-month to NT$853 million, snapping four consecutive months of growth, according to a separate statement.
On an annual basis, revenue tumbled 52 percent.
Green Energy said it plans to raise funds by issuing 800 million new common shares or corporate bonds to replenish its operating capital and to buy new equipment.
Green Energy shares plunged 2.16 percent to close at NT$15.85 in Taipei trading yesterday.
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Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
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