Featured in Powering up mainstream players – 03-2017

Funding future production

Underpricing issues: Expect manufacturer revenues for 2017 to have little relationship to current prices, as manufacturers continue selling tomorrow’s production today. Moreover, the ability of manufacturers to raise prices in the near, medium and long term has been permanently eroded. For most manufacturers current prices do not reflect costs and as margin expectations – that is, the gross margin necessary to run a thriving business – are little understood by analysts, observers, academics, researchers and even industry participants there is little possibility that the dire consequences of continued underpricing will be addressed.

The average annual price for modules is useful in that it indicates the true trend of market behavior. Monthly and even quarterly pricing updates can indicate a direction but are not informative in terms of long term planning. However, as pricing in the global solar industry is highly volatile, both the annual average and at …

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