Friday, 9 May 2014

REC may be the only large European Solar Player to survive the vicious 2012 downturn

We at Greenworldinvestor have speculated numerous times that most solar companies based in Europe such as Solarworld will cease to exist. We even thought that REC would have a tough time in surviving, given the massive losses in 2011 and 2012 with the massive debt. However, REC looks all set to survive as the company is sharply cutting costs. The company has also restructured its business by hiving off polysilicon production into a separate business. The company has also reduced debt through talks with bond holders.

Even though REC is still not out of the woods with an EBITDA margin of less than 10% on a revenue base of $175 million per quarter, the company is taking steps to remain competitive. The company is cutting costs at a sharp rate to reach parity with the Chinese cost leaders who have a 25% advantage on costs.

REC has closed almost all of its expensive European manufacturing operations and is now concentrating all its production at the integrated wafer to module facility in Singapore. The company is running this 1 GW capacity at full steam having shipped almost 225 MW of solar panels in the quarter. REC has been helped by a general industry upturn, which has aided it in finding high ASP markets in Japan and Europe.

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