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Optony: where thin film and concentrating solar meet - 29 August 2008
LCD panel makers gear up thin-film solar deployment - 29 August 2008
Smit Ovens passes 2 Gigawatt peak milestone - 29 August 2008
China Sunergy, one of a growing number of solar cell manufacturers, may
have seen sales and shipments increase over 100 percent year-on-year
but was unable to a make a profit in its most recent quarter having
been hit by a series of factors that could easily affect others in the
market in the coming months.
China Sunergy has seen selling prices fall due to increased
competition, especially in its main market in China while being hit by
higher wafer prices due to the continued tight supply of polysilicon.
The
company noted that in Q2, wafer costs reached $2.35 per watt compared
to $2.23 per watt in the first quarter. Wafer costs per watt as a
percentage of total production costs per watt increased from 87.8
percent to 88.4 percent.
Polysilicon shortages could also be
causing a quality issue or off-spec occurrence, China Sunergy noted, as
it failed to meet wafer specification targets for customers, forcing a
reduction in selling prices.
The company has also entered into
three recent supply contracts with LDK Solar, Konca Solar Cell and
Changzhou Xiandai Communications Optic Fiber for a net supply of a
total of approximately 11.9 million monocrystalline 125mm and 4.4
million multicrystalline 156mm wafers, respectively, for the second
half of 2007 and 2008.
Production expansion has been curtailed for the time being putting further pressure on achieving profitability.
The
company has also been hit by increased R&D expenditures as it
attempts to move improved P-type and N-type cell technology into
production.
Recent changes in management may well have been
disruptive, and the announcement of the departure of its CFO at the
same time as its quarterly financial reporting took place highlights
the difficulties solar manufacturers face regardless of the overall
boom in the business.
