Sharp’s solar sales slide on Japanese consumption tax woes

November 4, 2014
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Sharp Corporation has reported financial year second quarter net sales up 14.2% but solar PV related sales within its Energy Solutions division were down around 15% in the first six months, compared to the same period a year ago.

Sharp's Energy Solutions division actually reported a 7.1% sales increase quarter on quarter of 73.9 billion yen (US$651.6 million), up from 69 billion yen in the FY first quarter. 

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Module sales were up 49.5% from the previous quarter to 897MW, compared to 360MW in the previous quarter. The company retained full-year module sales at around 2,000MW in FY2014, which equates to a small 4.7% decline from the previous year. 

Sharp said that the deterioration in sales was due to the introduction of the consumption tax in Japan and lower house building activity in the country as well as less demand from overseas PV product developers in the first six months of its financial year. 

The company said that it would complete the construction of PV power plants in Japan that had already received system interconnection approval, though did not provide details on the scale of expected completions. 

Sharp also noted that it would continue to strengthen its position in the EPC, IPP and O&M sectors in Japan and overseas to support future earnings growth and promote sales of energy management systems and battery storage systems. 

The company reported a loss of 200 million yen for its Energy Solutions division, due to lower sales a write-down of US PV power plant assets in the US, without providing further explanation. 

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