Solar EnerTech’s fourth quarter revenue climbs

12 January 2010

Californian solar company Solar EnerTech’s revenue increased 22 per cent to $13.2m compared to $10.8m in the fourth quarter of the previous year, according to its fourth quarter financial results.

A majority of the company’s revenue, $11.2m, was from sales of solar modules, 95 per cent of which were sold to Europe and Australia, and $2m in solar cell sales. The company’s total module shipments increased 128 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year.

‘While approximately 90 per cent of our products are shipped to Europe and Australia, we believe the US market will still play a very important role for our company in the future,’ said Leo Young, CEO of Solar EnerTech.

For the fiscal year ended 30 September 2009, Solar EnerTech reported total revenue of $32.8m, compared to $29.4m in fiscal 2008, which represents a 12 per cent growth from fiscal 2008. The company said the increase in revenue resulted from increases in solar module shipments from 6.67MW in fiscal year 2008 to 10.50MW in fiscal year 2009, partially offset by a 25 per cent decrease in average selling prices from $4.10 per watt in fiscal year 2008 to $3.07 per watt in fiscal year 2009.

The company recruited a new experienced sales director in 2009 and acquired a new key customer in the fourth quarter, leading to a 10MW contract with a German system integrator.

The fourth quarter 2009 gross profit dramatically increased to $2.1m compared to losses of $2.6m in the fourth quarter in the prior year period. Fourth quarter 2009 gross margin was 16 per cent of total sales compared to negative 24 per cent of total sales in the prior year period.

The company attributes the improvement in gross profit margin to cost restructuring and an increase in the efficiency of its solar cells.

Excluding non-cash items, the operating expense for the fiscal 2009 fourth quarter was $2.5m, or 19 per cent of total net sales, compared to operating expenses for the fiscal 2008 fourth quarter of $3.1m, or 29 per cent of total net sales excluding non-cash items. The company attributes the decrease in operating expenses to the company’s efforts in various cost cutting programs and renegotiation of contracts to reduce operating expenses.

Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 was $1.9m, or $0.02 per basic share compared to a net loss of $2.8m, with a negative $0.03 per basic in fiscal 2008.
Young said, ‘We are pleased to report solid fourth quarter results in what was a transitional year for our business. We made strategic adjustments to cut costs and maintained our focus on developing superior products to advance the SolarE brand name into the marketplace. From a technological standpoint, we made excellent progress increasing the efficiency of our solar cells that resulted in higher wattage output panels, which creates more value to our customers and further reduces our production costs.

‘These efforts resulted in the successful securing orders from new customers as well as receiving follow-on orders from existing customers. We were delighted to have achieved positive net income of $1.9m and gross margin performance of 16 per cent in our fiscal 2009 fourth quarter compared to a net loss of $2.8m and negative 24 per cent gross margin in the previous year period,’ he added.

As part of EnerTech’s product development efforts, the company added an infrared scanner at its Shanghai module production facility.

The company said it is enhancing its manufacturing facilities to meet increased customer demands for our solar cell and module products, explore new technological advancements and focus on minimising operating expenses in order to maximise performance.
‘Our efforts and changes made over the course of the past year have positioned us for greater performance in fiscal 2010,’ said Young.

Solar EnerTech is a photovoltaic solar energy cell manufacturing enterprise incorporated in the US with its corporate office in Mountain View, California. The company currently has two 25MW solar cell production lines and a 50MW solar module production facility. The company recently established a joint R&D Lab at Shanghai University to develop higher efficiency cells and to put the results of that research to use in its manufacturing processes.

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Tags: solar

This story was published on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 4:35 pm and is filed under North America, companies, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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