L R AS Published on Saturday 22 September 2018 - n° 248 - Categories:Germany, equipment manufacturing
Swan song
According to the German VDMA, global panel manufacturers are currently investing mainly in thin-film production plants. German equipment manufacturers
are benefiting greatly from this trend. In the first two quarters of this year, German suppliers generated 58% of their sales in this segment, and in the first half of the year delivered half of last year's orders. As a result, German industry generated 24% more sales in the second quarter than in the first and 35% more than in the second quarter of 2017.
The order books are well filled. In the second quarter, the book-to-bill ratio was 1:1. The German VDMA believes that future expansion plans for the PV industry in Asia should continue to deliver orders. The expected orders will be for thin-film technologies and high-efficiency crystalline technologies.
The change in Chinese policy is expected to shift a number of orders in high-efficiency cells and especially India offers development prospects
In the second quarter, 82% of German engineering sales were in Asia, 39% of which were in China. The remaining 18% were destined for Germany (11%), Europe (6%), the Americas (1%) and Asia (6%).
In the second quarter, thin films were the most sustained activity, followed by cell production equipment (31%). However, on the world market, the share of thin film panel production is less than 10% and comes mainly from Germany.
New orders were 1.7 times higher in the second quarter than in the first. Most of the orders were placed in Asia (55%) with a greater geographical diversification, in America (31%)
PV Magazine of 21 September
Editor's note: "All is well Mrs. Marquise". All is well. Only I must tell you that Germany no longer supplies anything or almost anything for the production of silicon.
"Everything is fine, Marchioness. There's just a little bit of nothing." There are no more orders for wafer production equipment,
"Everything is fine, Mrs. Marquise, but I must tell you that there are no more orders for the cells and panels.
German equipment manufacturers have been excluded from the Asian market by Chinese machine manufacturers. They only have one niche left, the equipment for the production of thin films which the Chinese have not yet invested in. The Germans now occupy only one niche, which is only 10% of the world market and in which they believe they will prosper in the long term .
We would need more information on the origin of Indian manufacturers' equipment in order to see what the future holds for German equipment manufacturers: will it be them or the Chinese equipment manufacturers who will supply the Indians?
To be watched.
