Market research firm, IHS has made further tweaks to its PV manufacturing capital expenditure forecast, highlighting another US$430 million is expected to be spent in 2014 with the total reaching US$3.8 billion by year-end.
IHS had previously tweaked its capex forecast just over a month ago to reflect recent announcements from a number a Chinese tier one manufacturers after companies returned to high utilisation rates and continued strong demand.
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The market research firm had previously said that spending would increase by 42% from the lows of 2013 and reach US$3.37 billion in 2014.
Global PV capital spending is now expected to rise by 45% in 2014 from US$2.7 billion in 2013.
“Since August of last year, IHS has observed strong signs that a new capital spending cycle would start in 2014,” said Jon Campos, solar analyst at IHS. “Key factors such as market sentiment, PV demand and equipment-supplier bookings have continued to progress as a result of a healthy level of optimism.”
Although the total amount of capital spending expected in 2014 from regions such as Latin America and Africa are almost meaningless to the bigger picture of further capacity expansions in China and Asia Pacific, IHS noted that Latin America PV module manufacturing capacity growth in the regions would increase by 35% this year, though down from 42% in 2013. The region is the fastest growing, though coming from a tiny base.
Hot behind the growth in Latin America is expected to be the MENA region, posting capital spending growth of 33%, while capital spending in the US is said to experience growth of 13% in 2014.
However, in 2015, IHS said that solar manufacturing capacity in Latin America would experience around a 147% increase and continuing to lead growth ratings in 2016 and 2017. Again, such regions are coming from an almost non-existent base.