Shakeup in PV inverter company rankings continues in Q3 – IHS

In the latest ‘PV Inverter Market Tracker’ report from market research firm, IHS the global PV inverter market continues to remain highly dynamic and regional players in booming markets making the most gains. 

IHS said that Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei, made the largest gain in global market share, with just over two percentage points of growth in the third quarter of 2014. Huawei’s growth was primarily attributed to its market share expansion within the domestic Chinese market, which saw total inverter shipments increased steadily to 4.8GW, according to the IHS report. 

The China market recovery also benefited TBEA Sunoasis and Sungrow in the quarter.

“Global photovoltaic (PV) inverter supplier rankings have changed substantially over the past 12 months, led by large gains from Japanese, Chinese and module-level power electronic suppliers,” said Cormac Gilligan, senior analyst for PV inverter research at IHS. “Suppliers with a major presence in the United States, Japan, China, and other high-growth markets were some of the biggest year-over-year gainers, while those who were heavily reliant on Germany, Italy, and other countries that previously led the market lost considerable market share.”

IHS noted that Japan had become the largest global PV inverter market by revenue due to having the highest inverter prices globally and a booming market. The Japanese PV market has also been dominated by domestic suppliers which have little footprint outside Japan but have still increased their global market share as a result. 

According to IHS, Schneider Electric was the only European PV inverter supplier to gain any signifciant market share globally over the last year. This was said to be due to its increasing market position in the UK, France and other key European markets, as well as its growing presence in Japan and India. 

Schneider Electric was said to have made the third largest global market share gain in the first three quarters of 2014, increasing its market share by nearly two percentage points.

However, leading PV inverter companies, SMA Solar and ABB may have retained their leading positions through the first three quarters of the year but their share of the global market was said to have declined. 

Leading supplier, SMA Solar was noted to have lost a 6% share of the market, while ABB lost just over 1% share. The losses were attributed to SMA Solar’s limited presence and success in China and Japan, as well as a rapid decline in ABB shipments to Germany, Italy and other key European markets. 

IHS noted that continued PV inverter price declines due to the fierce competitive conditions in some key markets had also exacerbated their market-share erosion.

In the microinverter and power optimiser markets, IHS noted that both Enphase and SolarEdge continued to dominate, supported by strong market share growth in the US, Europe and in other international markets.