Singulus doubles up on CNBM production equipment order

Singulus's order book has presumably reached the “triple-digit million euro” mark, with the news today of another contract award at the International Import-Export Show in Shanghai.

The German solar production equipment maker announced yesterday it had signed a letter of intent to supply 300 MW capacity of CIGS thin-film module manufacturing equipment to China National Building Materials (CNBM), for the customer's production facility in Bengbu, in China's Anhui province.

That order – for “more than ten” production machines was described as worth a “high double-digit euro millions” figure and lo and behold! Singulus today announced a carbon copy order had been signed … with the same customer.

With the only difference being that today's identical order is for CNBM's production line in Xuzhou city, Jiangsu province, it seems the Chinese building materials company is either not very joined up, or is spectacularly cautious/indecisive/impulsive when it comes to settling on a supplier. The smart money though, is on Singulus's PR people choosing to drip feed contract announcements during the course of this week's show.

If the latter is true, that may be all from the Kahl am Main-based company for now, as today's announcement also included details of a separate agreement between the two parties for “the missing five CISARIS selenisation furnaces” intended for the “second production site Meishan”, in Sichuan province – a tantalizing revelation, given no further details were given on how exactly the machines in question had disappeared.

The orders come at a time when Chinese solar manufacturers are betting on an explosion in global – and possibly domestic – demand and are investing heavily in output capacity as a result. Which all means good news for companies such as Singulus, as part of a predicted European solar renaissance.