PV manufacturing equipment specialist Amtech Systems reported its best quarterly results since 2011, backed by significant sales in its Solar segment.
Amtech reported total fiscal third quarter revenue of US$40.0 million with solar contributing to over half the total at US$22.9 million.
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Revenue from the solar segment increased 427%, due primarily to increased sales of of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) equipment, as well as solar diffusion systems in the quarter.
The company previously secured several major orders for PECVD tools from US-based Mission Solar and a tier-1 Japanese manufacturer as well as a major order from a tier-1 Chinese manufacturer for diffusion furnaces, which indicates the those orders were partially being shipped and qualified at customer sites.
However, new orders in the Solar segment were weaker than previous quarters, indicating a lull in customers placing orders. Management said in its earnings call that solar equipment enquires and quotations from tier-1 and some tier-2 PV manufacturers was double the level seen in 2014.
Orders in the third quarter of fiscal 2015 were US$30.2 million with Solar segment orders totalling US$13.0 million, compared to US$15.8 million in the solar segement in the preceding quarter.
Amtech’s solar orders have been dominated by both PERC and N-type monocrystalline next-generation processing requirements.
Fokko Pentinga, Chief Executive Officer of Amtech said: “During the quarter we shipped our highest level of solar equipment in the last three years, which included a diverse mix of our standard diffusion, HD diffusion, and PECVD solar equipment to our expanded customer base. We also received a repeat order for our production-ready ALD equipment from a top tier Chinese cell and module manufacturer for their PERC project. In June and July we received field acceptance of our PECVD systems shipped to a large Japanese solar customer, further validating the production capabilities and value of this tool.”
Amtech’s Solar segment order backlog stood at US$32.4 million, compared to a solar backlog of US$41.4 million in the previous quarter as shipments increased.
The net loss for the quarter was US$1.6 million.
Amtech guided fiscal fourth quarter sales of between US$26 million to US$28 million.