Within a sluggish market demand, Taiwanese solar power cell manufacturers all posted decline revenues in August. The two major Taiwanese players, Motech and Neo Solar Power Corp. (NSP) both announced falling revenues in their August results. Motech's revenue slid was relatively slight, while NSP's revenue decreased by more than 50 percent because its capacity has not been completely set up.
Motech's revenue edged down slightly
Since July and August, solar power market demand has been sluggish, so selling prices have plunged. Most solar companies could not avoid revenue sliding. Taiwanese firms' revenues generally scaled down by 10~50% MoM.
Motech's August revenue dropped by 9.2% MoM and down by 21.9% YoY. These rates were relatively better among Taiwanese manufacturers mainly because Motech's utilization rate was more stable than others.
From January to August 2016, Motech's accumulated revenue reached NT $22.194 billion, up by 59.85% YoY. Motech's revenue rose because of two reasons. First, during first half of 2016, the market demand was stronger comparing to 1H15. Next, Motech enjoyed a lower anti-dumping duty rates imposed by the U.S. amid cross-strait manufacturers. This factor contributed to a better shipment volume from Motech. Nonetheless, Motech's duty advantage might gradually fade away when Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers' production capacities located in third-party countries are gradually set up.
NSP's August revenue went down by over 50%
NSP's August revenue fell by 51.65% MoM to NT $632 million, slumping 68.04% from NT $1.979 billion a year ago, because of sluggish average selling prices. Besides, the revenue decline was partially because that some of NSP’s customers adopted "Delivered at place (DAP)" mode and a certain part of revenue recognitions were postponed to next month.
NSP's accumulated revenues in the first eight months came to NT $12.35 billion this year, down 7.22% YoY.
Considering the uncertain market demand and the coming of a traditional peak-season in fourth quarter, NSP will maintain a stable and conservative attitude to operate in approaches such as effectively controlling overheads and re-distributing its own resources.
Starting this year, NSP's utilization rate was contracting due to factory moves. This factor affected shipment volume and revenues. However, the moving to overseas will be completed by the end of third quarter, and capacities will be set up and get ready. NSP will be able to provide 270MW cell capacity in Malaysia and 600MW module capacity in Vietnam, respectively.
(Written by Rhea Tsao. Translated by Janet Chen, a translator at TrendForce Corp.)
