Kyocera solar sales decline

•  
  Sales of solar modules at Kyocera declined in the first six-months of its 2013 financial year

Sales of solar modules at Kyocera declined in the first six months of its 2013 financial year, compared to the same period a year ago.

The company said module sales outside of the domestic Japanese market were to blame for the overall reduction, despite increased sales within Japan.

Tetsuo Kuba, President of Kyocera Corporation said: "In the second quarter, we saw increased demand for components used in digital consumer electronics, in particular for smartphones, as well as expanded sales in our solar energy business in the Japanese market. This led to increased sales and profit compared to the first quarter, and with a pretax profit ratio of 10%, we have bounced back to double-digit margins."

Sales in Europe for the first half decreased compared with the previous first half due to a decline in demand in the solar energy business, according to the company. Kyocera does not report solar sales as a separate item on its balance sheet.

Kyocera said that it expected demand for solar modules in the Japanese domestic market to increase in the second half of its financial year, though business in Europe would remain challenging on the back of economic stagnation.

Overall, Kyocera reported for the first six months of FY 2013 revenue of US$7.8 billion, a 0.7% increase from the same period a year ago. Profit from operations decreased 61.8%, to US$332 million.

Do you have an opinion on this article?  Share your views with the industry on our Photovoltaics International / PV-Tech.org LinkedIn group.