Centrotherm ups full year guidance, despite falling EBIT

Share

The company says it expects to achieve a higher revenue and "slightly" positive EBIT margin for the full year 2011. It did not, however, disclose any actual figures.

It attributes its decision to a strong order book and "good business trends" in the first half of the year. It does admit though that the turbulent market conditions have put pressure on certain segments.

Significantly falling EBIT

Already in August, the photovoltaics company bucked the trend to post positive year on year sales growth. Now, in the first nine months of the year, it says it has achieved a consolidated revenue of €635.7 million, which is said to be ahead of the level reported in the 2010 financial year.

EBIT, meanwhile, was €25.2 million, corresponding to a four percent EBIT margin. While it is still positive, it has fallen significantly from the €53.2 million reported back in August (1H 2011). It also falls short of the €54.2 million reaped in the first nine months of 2010, and healthier EBIT margin of 11.8 percent.

In particular, centrotherm says its silicon and wafer business is impacting its EBIT. While the segment achieved revenues of €63.5 million, its EBIT was a negative €-61.1 million. Furthermore, the company says the fall in polysilicon prices have prompted adjustments to some of its large-scale Asian silicon projects. Again, no specific details were released.

In August, centrotherm reported that sales in silicon and wafer fell from €90.7 million in 1H 2010 to just €33.9 million. EBIT also plummeted from €7.8 million last year to €-15.8 million. At the time, centrotherm said it was confident that it can improve on this figure by the end of 2011.

To combat the decline in the segment, the company says it has established a dedicated task force.

Stronger

Interestingly, the solar cell and module segment continued on its strong trajectory, with figures moving from the €382 million achieved in 1H 2011 to €546.5 million in the first nine months of 2011. EBIT also grew, from €81.7 million in 1H 2011 to reach €102.3 million.

Furthermore, the company’s thin film segment increased, with revenues growing from €12.7 million in 1H 2011 to €23.9 million. The EBIT in this segment has also taken a tumble though, from €-12.6 million in 1H2011 to €-16 million.

In a statement released, centrotherm comments, "With its flexible production model, centrotherm photovoltaics has positioned itself well to meet the challenges presented by the solar market. For example, the massive buildup of overtime hours and vacation that was acquired in the production area during the boom phase is to be reduced this year."

The company could not be contacted for further comment.

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.