Diversified renewable energy firm Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE) had previously warned that it expected to report a loss in 2016 of around US$133 million (RMB 923 million) due to a catalogue of issues but revised analysis by the company put the figure significantly higher at around US$348 million.
Many key PV manufacturers in Taiwan are still reporting monthly sales in February, 2017 that are well below the levels set in the first half of 2016, due primarily to the expected boom in China’s downstream PV market, which has yet to take hold.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Hanwha Q CELLS is allocating only US$50 million to capital expenditures in 2017, indicating there would be no new in-house capacity expansions in 2017.
Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) member JA Solar is continuing to expand manufacturing capacity in 2017 after guiding total shipments to be in the range of 6GW to 6.5GW, up from 5.2GW in 2016.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier RENA Technologies has secured several major orders from Asia-based PV cell manufacturers for its alkaline texturing and junction isolation tools in the first quarter of 2017.
Leading PV manufacturing equipment and technology supplier Meyer Burger has recently announced a swathe of new orders that encompass diamond wire saw equipment, PERC upgrade technology and Heterojunction (HJT) cell technology.
DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions is a well-known supplier of specialty materials to the solar energy industry, especially with its ‘Solamet’ photovoltaic metallization pastes that improve cell efficiencies and the ‘Tedlar’ PVF film-based backsheet materials for modules.
US-Based wafer producer 1366 Technologies and ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Hanwha Q CELLS have jointly achieved cell conversion efficiencies of 19.9%, up from 19.6% announced in December, 2016.
