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Sluggish demand in the first quarter of 2017 applied pressure to PV prices, causing loss to most of Taiwanese PV companies. Almost every Taiwan-based wafer and cell makers reported loss in 1Q17, imputing the cold season to absence of demand for China’s installation rush ahead of June 30.
Wafer sector
Green Energy Technology’s (GET’s) revenue in 1Q17 was NT$2.627 billion, down by 2% QoQ and by 50.14% YoY. This was the third consecutive quarter that GET reported loss.
Danen Tech’s 1Q revenue was NT$226 million, down by 49.99% YoY but up by 30.81% QoQ.
SAS was the only company that reported profit in 1Q17. With a consolidate revenue of NT$13.58 billion, SAS reported a YoY growth of 91.5%. PV related revenue was NT$2.996 billion.
SAS has sent its high-efficiency black silicon wafer sample to its customers for testing and plans to start mass production in mid-2017.
Cell sector
GigaSolar, a conductive paste solution provider, reported a consolidate revenue of NT$2.25 billion, dropped by 50.65% YoY.
Solartech’s revenue of the first four month of 2017 was NT$1.827 billion, declining 56.8% annually.
Gintech’s net sales of NT$34.18 billion dropped by 30% YoY while grew by 13.7% QoQ. The gross loss was NT$527 million and gross margin was -15.4%, worse than 4Q16 and 1Q16. Gintech looked optimistically toward business in the second quarter and stated to ramp up capacity in its Thailand factory, which has a nominal capacity of 400MW.
TSEC reported a revenue of NT$1.698 billion, down by 22.33% YoY. Low cell price and partially utilized capacity due to supply shortage of mono-si materials accounted for the loss, explained TSEC.
Motech’s revenue in 1Q17 was NT$5.069 billion, decreased by 47.31% YoY. This was the second consecutive quarter that Motech reported loss of over NT$ 1 billion.
NSP reported the fourth consecutive loss quarter with a consolidate revenue of NT$2.162 billion in 1Q17. NSP explained that the company is undergoing a business transformation and will turn to focus on mono-si production and downstream PV power plant segment. Fruits of the transformation could be seen in financial results of 4Q17, expected NSP.
