The PV supply chain had faced pressure of lowering prices during June, starting from the downstream to the upstream sectors due to the rapid weakened demand. Cell prices even reached a historical low. Among the price decline trend, some Taiwanese firms’ revenues in June showed different levels of decline, while some companies' revenues grew against the market headwind.
Danen: revenue rose in June
Wafer manufacturer Danen’s revenue in June reached NT$157 million, up 0.38 % MoM and up 27.16% YoY. The first six months’ accumulated revenues totaled NT$919 million, up 20.35% YoY. According to Danen, though multi-siwafers recently have seen a price drop, the firm has maintained its revenue growth with super-high efficiency products’ prices advantages.
Danen believed that in the future, the market’s demand to high-efficient products will continue to rise. China’s Top Runner Program, which sets 5.5GW installation target for 2016, will be one of the sources of demand. In the future, the firm will continue to attentively increase the proportion of highly efficient products.
GET: Revenues in June dropped, revenues in 1H surpassed NT$10 billion
Green Energy Technology Inc. (GET), a wafer manufactuer, has turned from loss to profit in the first quarter of 2016. Its second quarter revenue is predicted to reach NT$4.781 billion and the gross margin came to 5~10%. This was the second consecutive quarter that was maintained profitable. During June, the prices in the supply chain fluttered, so orders decreased. Therefore, GET’s revenue went down 26.3% from May and came to NT$1.27 billion. Nonetheless, its annual growth rate still came to 10%. Moreover, it is estimated that GET's utilization rate in the second quarter might be maintained at 95%.
In the first half of 2016, GET's total revenues were NT$10.005 billion. This not only broke through the threshold of NT$10 billion, but also skyrocketed 35% year-over-year. GET predicted that the market demand will reach the rock bottom during July and will start to rebound after the end of August. GET will continue to research and develop high-efficiency wafer, in order to make better profits.
Silver prices rapidly rose, Giga Solar's revenue grew 8.4%
Conductive paste firm Giga Solar Materials Corp’s revenue in June rose 8.4% month-over-month to NT$1.471 billion due to the recent rapid-rising silver prices. Though supply chain's prices hve dropped continuously, Giga Solar's revenue grew against the market headwind. Nevertheless, the rise of silver price became a threat to Giga Solar's gross margin in second quarter. The Japanese Yen’s recent appreciation might cause losses of currency exchange.
Giga Solar's revenue in June grew 12.8% year-over-year. However, second quarter's revenue declined 4.7% quarter-over-quarter down to NT$4.337 billion. In the second half of 2016, Giga Solar's revenue came to NT$8.891 billion, skyrocketing 39.9% year-over-year.
Giga Solar's major products are front-side Al paste, back-side Al paste and Ag paste. Besides that, Giga Solar continues to proactively develop domestic and overseas power facilities markets, to make more profits for the company.
Gintech's decreased shipment affected its revenue
Cell manufacturer Gintech suffered a lot from the reduced orders starting from May. Gintech's revenue in June fell 12.2% month-over-month, dropping to NT$1.434 billion. Its revenue in June merely rose 0.5% year-over-year. During the second quarter of 2016, Gintech's total revenue came to NT$4.626 billion, down 5.3% quarter-over-quarter and up 17% year-over-year. In the first half of 2016, Gintech's accumulated revenue reached NT$9.507 billion, up 35.3% year-over-year.
According to Gintech, its revenue plumped directly because shipments and selling prices both dropped in June. The reason behind the situation was because China's installation rush by June 30th. Gintech predicted that July's market demand would stay flat and slow. However, due to the driving force of China's policies, the market demand would slowly rise from the end of third quarter to the fourth quarter.
TSEC grew against the market headwind
TSEC was one of the few Taiwanese cell firms that showed a growing revenue in June. Its revenue increased 19.1% month-over-month to NT$764 million. In the second quarter, its quarterly revenue reached NT$2.029 billion, down 7.1% quarter-over-quarter. During the first half of 2016, TSEC's accumulated revenue reached NT$4.213 billion, up 31.1% year-over-year.
The major reason why TSEC's revenue grew in June was because it expanded its cell production's capacity. June's revenue was only the second to March 2016’s.
Solartech: the prices of orders were good
Though cell prices showed a downtrend starting from the end of May, Solartech's revenue grew against the market headwind and reached NT$1.019 billion in June. Its June revenue rose 9.2% month-over-month and was up 3.9% year-over-year. The main reason were the following: a customer's May payment was postponed, and was carrying into June's account, and the price of the orders was good.
Solartech's accumulated revenue was NT$6.183 billion during the first half of 2016, up 47.3% year-over-year. According to Solartech, there were no worries about orders in July, but quotes indeed dropped. Nevertheless, Solartech maintained good relations with its long-term customers, and it insisted upon never accepting lower-price orders. Therefore, Solartech has been able to maintain certain amount of orders and levels of prices.
Tainergy: stable profits in Q2, and newly added capacity in Q4
Another Taiwanese cell company, Tainergy, had significant profits in Q2 due to its Vietnam factories' high premium advantage over its Taiwan factory. In May, Vietnam's new capacity reached 100% utilization rate, so Tainergy's revenue significantly rose and skyrocketed 32.8% month-over-month. In June, though its revenue dropped, Tainergy's profit was maintained at a certain level. According to Tainergy, July's and August's market demand will be relatively weak and cell prices would drop. After August, however, Tainergy viewed cell prices to rebound from the bottom.
Tainergy's cell capacity are located in Taiwan (330MW), in Kunshan, mainland China (280MW), and in Vietnam (400MW). In Q4 this year, the Vietnam factory will have newly-added capacity of 400MW. This year's total capacity will reach around 1.4GW. Tainergy also stated that it is evaluating whether to form joint venture for setting up product lines in India.
(Translated by Janet Chen, Translator at TrendForce Corp.)