Its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the first half of the year amounted to 81.2 – a drop from last years 83.3 million – while the EBIT margin ran to 13.3 percent.
In addition to its worldwide production sites working at full capacity, the company says its U.S. site in Hillsboro/Oregon will be ramping up its machines for module production in early September. The plan is for a year-end capacity of 350 MW.
We were able to make use of the dynamic development of the international solar markets, says Dr. Ing. h.c. Frank Asbeck, chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. The worldwide production sites are working at full capacity; capacity expansion is proceeding according to plan. We are investing in highly advanced, efficient manufacturing facilities.??
The company added that cell production increased by around 35 percent in the first half of the year and will reach full capacity utilization by the first quarter of next year. It said that marketing measures were stepped up in the U.S., the important market of the future. Capacities are also said to be increasing at the companys German location in Freiberg/Saxony. A new 250 MW wafer-production facility was inaugurated at the end of May. In Freiberg, the capacity can be increased to a total of one gigawatt.
In early July, the foundation stone was laid for a new module-production site, Solar Factory III, to boost SolarWorlds module capacity to 550 MW. Asbeck said: The European markets will grow vigorously, first and foremost in Italy but also in France and in Eastern Europe. Our Freiberg production site is located right in the heart of Europe, securing short transport routes to all these markets for us.?
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