Solar cell module maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter jumped 234 percent to NT$78 million (US$2.42 million) from the second quarter as it shipped more high-margin modules equipped with N-type TOPCon solar cells.
However, on an annual basis, net profit dropped 19.6 percent from NT$97 million.
Earnings per share were NT$0.2, up from NT$0.06 a quarter earlier, but down from NT$0.25 a year earlier, it said.
Photo: Chang Huei-wen, Taipei Times
Gross margin climbed to 15.6 percent from 13.3 percent in the April-to-June period and 13.7 percent from a year earlier.
Robust demand from overseas, primarily Japan, also drove shipments higher and improved the company’s financial performance, Motech spokesman Ting Wang (王丁召) told investors.
“The company’s business hit a trough in the second quarter and started to rebound in the third quarter,” Wang said.
Motech said it expects revenue this quarter to be little changed from NT$955 million last quarter, as sales would improve this month and next month from a low of NT$222 million last month.
Domestic solar companies are suffering due to an unfavorable external environment in the second half of this year, as large-scale solar project developers are slowing the pace of solar installments ahead of the Jan. 13 presidential elections, the company said.
“The impact is enormous,” Wang said. “Besides, it is time-consuming to go through the paperwork from different government agencies to install solar panels above fishing ponds. It took much longer than we expected.”
Motech holds a cautious outlook regarding market demand next year and hopes to have a better picture of demand after the elections, Wang said.
The company will continue upgrading its production lines to maintain its technology leadership, he said.
Motech is ahead of its peers in receiving certification for the new generation of M10 solar panels and plans to convert all of its M6 solar panels to larger M10s from June next year, Wang said.
The conversion would help boost its domestic annual capacity to about 400 megawatts from 350 megawatts this year, Wang said.
Motech also plans to upgrade its factory in Maanshan in China’s Anhui Province, which has an installed capacity of 300 megawatts, he said.
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