Equipment rebound evident in Amtech Q4 2014 earnings

While the PV equipment supply sector has shown glimmers of life rather than a full-blown recovery in recent months, the trend towards growing orders continues to be evident. The latest sign is the announcement from U.S. firm Amtech’s Q4 2014 bookings, which reached the highest volume for the firm in over three years.
Amtech says that the orders received in the quarter will ship within three-to-nine months.
“We are very pleased to announce this record volume of orders since the last up cycle, which demonstrates our successful participation in selective capacity expansion opportunities in the current solar market,” said Fokko Pentinga Amtech’s CEO.
Some of Amtech’s supply highlights for the period include its ongoing supply deal with U.S. n-type manufacturer Mission Solar and a “significant order” from a leading Chinese manufacturer.
Last month Dutch Amtech subsidiary Tempress completed the acquisition of atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology spin off SoLayTec from RENA. This week SoLayTec announced that Hanwha Q Cells is evaluating its ALD technology.
Whether the positive earnings result announced today signals to a return to positive earnings remains unclear. Amtech will release its full financial results for Q4 2014 in February.