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Despite a 13% increase in sales for its fiscal third quarter, specialist PV equipment supplier, Amtech Systems has implemented new cost cutting measure to tackle the downturn that has proved to longer and deeper than expected. The cost reductions include voluntary salary reductions by management ranging from 10 to 20% and salary reductions of other corporate staff.
Fokko Pentinga, Chief Executive Officer of Amtech Systems, commented, "When the solar headwinds became readily apparent in the middle of 2011 we took aggressive action and immediately began reducing our costs including headcount and discretionary costs. Due to the continuation and severity of the downturn, we are implementing even more extensive measures in the current quarter to reduce the cost structure of our corporate and solar operations from which we expect to produce significant annual costs savings in fiscal 2013.
The cost savings were put at between US$6-US$7 million in fiscal 2013, though the company reiterated that it would continue to invest in key R&D programs for the PV industry, including it ion implant technology, launched at SNEC, Shanghai earlier this year. Management said that the cost savings would not intended to impact customer engagements.
Amtech reports net revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 of US$24.3 million, up 13% sequentially from US$21.6 million for the preceding quarter. The increase in sales was primarily due to previously-deferred revenue on shipped equipment to PV manufacturers.
New order intake was US$6.1 million but only US$0.7 million for its solar segment, which was down from total orders of US$18.0 million ($7.2 million solar) in its fiscal second quarter.
Total order backlog stood at US$35.6 million, compared to total backlog of US$67.4 million at March 31, 2012. Amtech’s solar segment order backlog stood at US$26.1 million, compared to US$54.1 million at the end of the fiscal second quarter.
The company posted a net loss of US$3.0 million, down from a loss of US$5.1 million in the previous quarter.
Amtech guided fiscal fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of US$15-17 million.
