Last week, GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) reported first quarter sales of only US$23 million, which included US$13 million in sales from its PV segment and US$4 million from its polysilicon segment.
The company reported a non-GAAP net loss of US$30 million for the quarter.
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GTAT booked US$29 million of equipment orders during the first quarter of 2014, including US$15 million in its PV segment.
Total order backlog at the end of the quarter stood at US$609 million, which included US$296 million of polysilicon segment backlog and US$13 million related to its PV segment, predominantly DSS furnaces from inventory.
However, GTAT’s sales looked to have bottomed after over two years of declining PV and polysilicon segment sales as the company guided revenue in the second quarter of 2014 to be in the range of US$40 million to US$80 million.
Although orders and revenue are not expected to be significant from either PV or polysilicon segments in 2014, GTAT management still describe the year as transitional, with the vast majority of revenue in the year coming from its major sapphire production agreement getting underway with Apple.
Management reiterated that it expected revenue for the full year to be in the range of US$600 million to US$800 million, generated mostly in the second half of the year with more than 80% coming from its sapphire segment.
“Although the general trend remains positive in the PV segment of the industry, the first quarter was a challenging period from the PV manufacturers as several key players reported lighter shipment margin pressure as polysilicon costs rose and module prices continued to drop,” said Tom Gutierrez, CEO of GT Advanced Technology during the company’s Q1 earnings call. “Despite this environment, we continue to convert our DSS inventory in Q1, a reflection of our continued technical leadership in the PV space.”
Merlin technology update
GTAT said that since launching its ‘Merlin’ solar cell and interconnect technology in March 2014 the company said it had received significant interest from leading solar industry players, specifically due to the interest in leveraging existing manufacturing equipment and investments while operating with low capital expenditure plans.
The company said it expected to secure IEC certification later in the year from the Merlin technology and reiterated plans is to start pilot production of Merlin in 2014 and to launch commercial production in early 2015.
However, management noted that due to the stronger demand than initially expected it was considering investment and production capacity acceleration, without providing further details.
