A subsidiary of MX Group, Solarday has gone into liquidation, according to a brief statement on its website. The company had opened it module assembly plant in Mezzago, Brianza, Italy in 2006 and had employed over 100 people, claiming it had achieved turnover in 2009 of over €60 million. MX Group had acquired a majority ownership of Solarday in 2011.
Although cuts in feed-in tariffs in major European markets have cast a cloud over PV installations this year, market research firm IMS Research expects key emerging markets to support growth of the industry in 2012. According to IMS, global installations will reach between 27.8GW and 32.6GW in 2012, compared to its latest figures for 2011 when installations were said to have reached 26.9GW.
The PV industry has historically trusted global PV installation figures released by PV inverter market leader, SMA Solar Technologies due to the fact it had a direct route to a major part of the sector. This was often supported by market research figures or at least an alternative measure to compare different figures produced due to the difficult task in accurately reporting annual global installation levels. Not surprisingly, when SMA claimed its own market share figure for inverter sales the figure was rarely questioned.
Having posted record revenue of CHF 1.32 billion in 2011, major PV equipment supplier, Meyer Burger acknowledge that 2012 would be a lean year due to overcapacity and significant cuts to capital spending from PV manufacturers. The company guided revenue to be down significantly in 2012 and in the range of CHF 600–800 million and an EBITDA margin between 4–8%. Management noted that it didn’t expect a recovery in demand for equipment until 2013 and had started a restructuring plan to reduce operating costs with a 15% workforce reduction.
Emphasis on high-performance module production and increased shipments to markets such as the US and Japan, to take advantage of growing utility-scale and residential businesses respectively, was a key highlight in JA Solar’s quarterly conference call. China, would also receive greater attention as partnerships with utility customers expanded its pipeline.
Renewable Energy Corporation said that operating its 300MW monocrystalline wafer plant in Glomfjord, Norway would continue to lose money despite cost reduction efforts and that it will therefore be closed permanently. The plant closure will affect 200 employees.
Citing further pricing pressures in the fourth quarter of 2011, LDK Solar has revised down fourth quarter financial guidance and warned of further inventory write downs, expected to be from its polysilicon production operations. The company has already made several downward amendments to its expected quarterly results in 2011, resulting in excess of US$1 billion wiped-off expected revenue and over 1GW in expected wafer shipments alone.
As revealed in Hanwha SolarOne’s recent quarterly financial conference call, the PV module manufacturer is moving downstream to become a project developer and financier. As part of those business changes the company has formed a joint venture with project developer S.A.G. Solarstrom to initially build-out 20MWp of rooftop projects - mainly in Northern Italy - that are expected to be completed by the end of June 2012.
Against a backdrop of many peers reporting lower fourth quarter shipments when compared to the previous quarter, ReneSola held its ground, exceeding shipment guidance for solar wafers and modules. The company reported 2011 revenue higher than guided at US$985.3 million but 18.3% below 2010 net revenue of US$1,205.6 million. Total solar wafer and module shipments in 2011 reached a record 1,294.8 MW, exceeding prior guidance and an increase of 9.5% from 1,182.8 MW for the full year 2010. However, management guided a significant increase in solar wafer and module shipments in 2012 to be in the range of 1.8GW to 2.0GW. Emphasis was placed on module shipments increasing as well as doubling capacity to 1GW.
Tough market conditions for Hanwha SolarOne led to fourth quarter losses and sliding shipments and average selling prices, which were below in-house manufacturing costs. Although the company posted 2011 revenue above the US$1.0 billion level, the company reported a net loss of US$169.8 million. PV module shipments were 189.1MW, in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 5.9% from 200.9MW in prior quarter. Module shipments for 2011 reached 844.4MW, representing an increase of 5.8% from 797.9MW in 2010. Hanwha SolarOne guided 2012 shipments to be in the range of 1GW.
