Quarterly Photovoltaic Equipment Market Plummets 60% - SolarStar

According to SEMI, there is prolonged challenging environment for PV equipment suppliers.

Worldwide Solar Photovoltaic  manufacturing equipment billings declined for the third quarter in a row, falling another 20 percent for the quarter and 60 percent from the same quarter last year, according to the SEMI Worldwide Photovoltaic Equipment Market Statistics Report for Q1 2012.

The reported total quarterly billings of $695 million slumped to the lowest level since the start of the data collection program in Q1 2010.

The reported total bookings reversed a four-quarter declining trend, up 29 percent for the quarter to $591 million. However, the increase was due to a large one-time order in a Rest-of-World region. Excluding this one-time large order, total bookings continued the negative growth in the last four quarters, down 36 percent for this quarter.

SEMI Worldwide PV Equipment Market Statistics Report, June 2012

Not surprisingly, PV manufacturers are still concerned with overcapacity and balance sheets. This has resulted in capital expenditures being curtailed, creating an extremely challenging environment for PV equipment  suppliers worldwide. A significant contraction in 2012 full-year revenue is expected in the PV equipment market.

The worldwide PV equipment billings and bookings data is gathered jointly with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) from about 50 global equipment companies that provide primary data on a quarterly basis.