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Major equipment supplier to the PV industry, centrotherm photovoltaics, has received loans from an unidentified number of banks amounting to approximately €50 million. Currently in insolvency proceedings, the cash injection was said to result in the company having around €90 million of liquidity, supporting ongoing operations such as equipment shipments, spare parts deliveries and general services.
The company also announced that it had received orders from Taiwan-based c-Si solar cell manufacturers. Although the customers were not identified, centrotherm said that one customer was new to the company, having placed a multiple equipment order that included diffusion and anti-reflective coating tools.
A long-standing Taiwanese customer was said to have placed an order for centrotherm’s fast-firing furnace, c.FIRE.
Equipment shipments to customers had become a major issue for the company when previous financial support was withdrawn, which also quickly led to the company filing for insolvency. However, centrotherm said that it would soon be shipping part of a 360MW solar cell line order from its backlog to another long-standing customer in China.
"The seamless continuation of operations and the loyalty of our customers and suppliers, are supporting our reorganization process and form an important foundation for centrotherm's future,” commented Robert Hartung, CEO of centrotherm photovoltaics. “Our aim is to further strengthen our excellent market position and competitiveness.”
However, the company will still have to restructure its operations and provide acceptable business plans via the bankruptcy courts to ensure future survival.
