Good year for PV production manufacturers
While Western manufacturers of solar cells and panels continue to lose market share, western manufacturers of the production equipment used by the Chinese had yet another good year, though the outlook seems bleak.
2011 was a good year for production equipment suppliers to the photovoltaic sector. Both the latest report from US market researching firm Solarbuzz and the preliminary results published by German engineering association VDMA confirm that sales grew, though the growth differs regionally. For instance, eastern Asian manufacturers of machines, systems, and components for photovoltaics production have entered the scene. From 2008 to 2011, a number of Chinese firms that are now quite large have increased sales by 200 percent. Regional market leader Komatsu-NTC, for instance, now has a four percent share of the global market, making it the sixth largest supplier to manufacturers of solar cells and panels. Applied Materials of Santa Clara, California, defended its position as global market leader. Solarbuzz estimates that sales from this supplier from Silicon Valley grew by 60 percent last year.
The results for German firms in 2011 also varied. For instance, the largest German manufacturers – Centrotherm of Blaubeuren and the Schmidt Group of Freudenstadt – posted record sales last year, and Germany's Rena also managed to defend its ranking on the global market. But other firms, such as Roth und Rau, saw business go downhill. Overall, "German PV equipment suppliers make up nearly 50 percent of the global market," says Peter Fath, CTO of Centrotherm and chairman of the VDMA's committee on photovoltaics production equipment. As Florian Wessendorf, project director on that committee, explains, the VDMA expects German PV production equipment manufacturers to grow by eight percent in 2011 based on "good sales in the first three quarters and sales expectations for the fourth."
Markets in Asia were decisive for German suppliers in particular, who posted 80 percent of their sales there. Germany remains the second largest sales market for these German firms at nearly 10 percent of sales. In contrast, the US market remains weak; German firms only got five percent of their business there. But as these figures show, the export ratio for German PV production equipment manufacturers is extremely high. Indeed, it is at a record level of 90 percent. One crucial issue concerns equipment for cell production. Two thirds of investments are made here. The shares of investments made by thin film and panel manufacturers were at 14 and 13 percent of total sales, respectively, last year. Equipment manufacturers only posted five percent of sales from systems for the manufacturing of poly silicon, ingots, and wafers.
The outlook is, however, bleak for this year. As SolarBuzz's head analyst Finlay Colville explains, last year most equipment was purchased to meet very ambitious expansion plans that did not meet with equivalent market demand. He therefore expects expenses for the manufacture of crystalline solar cells in particular to plummet in light of chronic surplus capacity on this market unless demand on the consumer market is greater than expected in 2012. Solarbuzz says that GT Advanced Technologies of Merrimack, New Hampshire, is an exception, however, because it has a larger market share in the poly silicon sector, and its photovoltaics sales are more diversified.
The VDMA also believes that Germany manufacturers face a tough year in light of surplus capacity and the sluggish market in Europe. Indeed, the backlog of orders has been shrinking for some time now. It was the longest in 2010, but it has now reached its lowest level since 2005, having fallen to 6.3 production months in the third quarter of 2011 – just above the 5.7 months for the mechanical engineering sector in general. Fath is nonetheless optimistic when it comes to growth potential for PV equipment suppliers: "The sector is well prepared for the challenges we face over the next few months and will prove to be the driving force in bringing down the cost of PV production over the long term."(Sven Ullrich / Craig Morris)
