SolarWorld sets its sights on expansion

Share

The German manufacturer’s outlook is positive for 2011. Having met its forecasts for last year, the focus is now on capacity, revenue and market expansion.

"We will do everything in our power to reduce our costs and to strengthen our quality brand," states CEO Frank Asbeck. "We will develop new storage technologies for the self-consumption of solar power (…) In 2011, SolarWorld AG will continue its capacity expansion in module production to reach 1,400 (2010: 940) megawatts (MW) so that the group can place larger product volumes in the final customer business."

Overall, the company expects this year’s shipments to grow by around 30 percent. It adds that the U.S. market looks particularly promising: the possibility to more than double its sales there exists due to the "logistical advantages" of local production and existing sales and distribution networks.

Furthermore, it says that within the next two years, the foreign quota is to be further enhanced to 75 percent.

Financial breakdown

?In terms of 2010, the company increased its shipments of wafers and solar power modules by 42 percent to 819 MW (2009: 578 MW). It says that this considerably boosted its revenue, which increased by 28.8 percent or €292.1 million from 2009, to reach €1,304.7 million (2009: €1,012.6 million).

Groupwide, SolarWorld says that earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew in fiscal year 2010 by 26.1 percent to reach €192.8 million (2009: €152.8 million). Its EBIT margin amounted to 14.8 percent (2009: 15.1 percent). Meanwhile, consolidated profits went up in 2010 by €28.3 million, or 48.0 percent, to €87.3 million (2009: €59 million).?

Asbeck comments: "The year 2010 was turbulent. Our sales developed vigorously in the international solar markets and, above all in the second half of the year, shifted from our core market, Germany, to other European markets and the United States."

He continues: "Consequently, the foreign sales quota in 2010 increased by 14 percentage points to 59 percent (2009: 45 percent). We aligned ourselves internationally at a very early point in time and can therefore flexibly use developments in individual markets for our purposes by simply shifting sales volumes."

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.