Taiwan PV manufacturers delivered above-average financial results in January 2015. Although SAS’ sales revenue slightly decreased compared to last month, other tier-one manufacturers’ increased in contrast to previous month. Below is a summary of major Taiwan manufacturers’ sales performances from November 2014 to January 2015:
The sales performance for Tainergy turned out to be better than other companies from November to December 2014. Its earnings per share (EPS) may continue to grow and become the highest among all PV cell manufacturers in 2014. Meanwhile, Tainergy has put most of its effort in Vietnam cell mass production to maintain its shares in the US market after the US-China trade war.
Due to the increased Chinese demand, the sales revenue for both Giga Solar and Giga Storage hit record high in January 2015, reaching NT$1.057 billion and NT$1.294 billion, respectively. Giga Solar indicated that the shipments for all three types of pastes grew simultaneously under the strong market demand. Among all, positive silver paste with high gross margin represented about 60% of the total sales revenue. In addition, global silver prices have reflected a downtrend, leading to Giga Solar’s above-average sales performance in January; Giga Storage pointed out that it has begun to stock up despite the fewer working days in February caused by the Lunar New Year. It is expecting high sales revenue and profits in 1Q15.
Affected by the US anti-dumping and countervailing duty, Motech’s unit prices remained weak. Hence, it’s suffered from losses in 4Q14. Motech emphasized that it is positive about the cooperation with Topcell Solar and strong growth is likely to take place this year. In comparison with Motech, NSP had a relatively stable performance in 4Q14. NSP said it will continue to expand its downstream PV solar systems to stabilize the profit.
Green Energy announced its consolidated revenue in January – NT$1.538 billion, a 16.7% rise MoM. It shows that high-efficiency wafers did not impact by the US-China trade war and continued to be the focus. Green Energy further indicated that it will put more effort in the end-user market. By establishing strategic partnership with other cell manufacturers and Gintung, it can expand to downstream markets. In the meantime, the sales revenue for Solartech and Danentech increased 0.5% and 1.5% in January 2015, respectively.
SAS’s consolidated revenue in January 2015 reached NT$2.392 billion, a 3.8% drop from the previous month. Its sales revenue generated from PV segment was NT$1.035 billion, which grew 45.2% from the same period last year. SAS is positive about the growth in the PV market and will increase its capital expenditure and labor cost within the PV segment this year. In fact, SAS has already started to hire in Ilan and Hsinchu, Taiwan.
