The revenues of Taiwanese solar companies for February 2012 have been announced: the orders continued to pour in since mid-January and certain solar manufacturers have been at full capacity, with the prices continuing to rise. The upswing caused polysilicon and Si wafer prices to soar, while cell and module prices only went up modestly due to the conservatism in the downstream sector. Overall, the utilization rates of up, mid and downstream of the supply chain have all increased and were above 80%, even though the certain makers were still coping with labor shortage.
Source: EnergyTrend
In February, the solar players continued to benefit from Europe’s rush orders, and they have been at full capacity, which caused the price to increase. The companies hope to strike a balance between profit and loss with this demand surge. The surge is most evident in high efficiency products such as high efficiency Si wafers and solar cells, whose prices have seen a considerable surge. The capacities have all been filled up as of early February. However, the growth momentum began to fade after Germanyannounced the time for subsidy cut, and the market became conservative again. But due to the late announcement, it did not put a dent in the February revenues.
Looking at March, most companies’capacities have been booked. But due to Germany’s subject-to-change date for the subsidy cut and the fact that it cuts more than expected, the solar market is more conservative about the upcoming growth momentum for installed capacity. According to EnegyTrend, the price will be trending down in the coming weeks. To sum up, the shipments will remain stable in March, but the prices will dip to the same level before the demand surge. Taiwanese companies’revenues continued to go up in February; Sino-America Silicon Products and Green Energy Technology’s revenues increased 16.3% and 17.6% in February, respectively, and the cell makers’performed differently in terms of revenues, ranging from 0% increase to 37% increase.