German solar manufacturer SolarWorld AG saw its shipments increase significantly in the first quarter of 2017, according to provisional financial results. The company shipped 382 MW of solar products in the latest quarter, up 10% from both the previous quarter and the same quarter of the past year.
The global price fall for PV modules registered in the second half of 2016, however, was responsible for the revenue drop reported for the quarter, the company said. Turnover declined from €213 million in the first quarter of last year to €186 million in the latest quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, however, revenue increased by €22 million.
Ebidta loss for the quarter was €18 million. This compares to a profit of €2 million a year earlier, and to a loss of €41 million in the fourth quarter of last year. Ebit loss also improved from €51 million in the last quarter of 2016 to €28 million in the latest quarter. These losses, however, are in line with its forecasts, SolarWorld said.
As of the end of March 2017, the company had an available liquidity of €84 million. In February, SolarWorld announced its intention to exit the multicrystalline silicon business, and to focus on high-efficiency technologies in the future. Furthermore, SolarWorld said it was planning to concentrate all of its German cell production at its facility in Freiberg, and the module manufacturing at the factory in Arnstadt. The company U.S. factory in Hillsboro, on the other hand, will keep manufacturing both cells and panels.
The plan, the company stated, is progressing according to schedule and is set to be completed by the end of this year.
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.
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.