Photovoltaic equipment development difficulties analysis

Although last year's photovoltaic equipment companies such as Beijing Express, Tianlong Optoelectronics, and Jinggong Technology all had profitability, over time, issues such as customer default and payment failures, and large amounts of accounts receivable were concentrated on individual customers. .

In recent days, Beijing Express has ordered 461 polysilicon ingot casting equipments to be cancelled by its customer LDK Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiangxi Levi”). The total value of this contract is 1.158 billion yuan, and it should be fully delivered by the end of 2010. After Jiangxi LDK paid the advances of 113.8 million yuan for these orders before March 2011, it did not get the goods on time.

Although Beijing Yuntong paid several times to Jiangxi Salvi and requested it to take delivery as soon as possible during this period of more than one year, the other party did not respond.

“This kind of breach of contract occurs frequently in the photovoltaic industry.” Mr. Zhang, a general manager of a company in eastern China that also produces polysilicon ingot casting equipment, pointed out to reporters that although some customers did not directly breach the contract, they had to guard against this as suppliers. risk.

Polysilicon prices have fallen from last year’s high of US$80/kg to today’s US$30/kg, while in the South, industrial electricity tariffs are generally above RMB 1/kWh, which is more than double the northern region.

For PV manufacturers, breach of contract does not cause financial losses, but it makes the company's growth doubtful. Taking Beijing Express as an example, its total revenue in 2011 was 1.775 billion yuan. If the LDK project is implemented, its revenue can also be increased by 65% ​​on this basis.

Will the money not be returned?

Compared to the cancellation of orders, the problem that is currently making PV equipment manufacturers even more troublesome is that they did not receive enough cash to sell the goods.

Mr. Zhang, the general manager of the above-mentioned ingot casting equipment company, stated that there are many ways to collect payments. “In the past few years, we all directly received each other’s cash money. In the past two years, I have a large number of commercial papers, electronic and paper. Quality."

Under normal circumstances, electronic bills of exchange are accepted within 12 months, and paper bills of exchange are accepted within 6 months. “Now, the PV industry is in poor condition. We hope our cash holdings can be a little more. Therefore, regardless of the bill of exchange, it is better to discount it and get cash from the bank.” But he stressed that over the past year, the bank’s The discount rate is extremely high, which causes the company to lose money. "You may get a 10% discount rate. A 10 million yuan commercial bill is equivalent to you losing 100 million yuan."

However, a person from the commercial paper department of a famous domestic bank told reporters that in the past credit tightened, the discounted gates of many banks were closed, so as long as some banks are willing to discount, even if they open a discount rate of 15% to 20%, There will also be companies accepting, "But the discount rate has been lowered since the recent period, currently at around 5.5%, which is good news for domestic PV companies."

Major customer risk In addition, Mr. Zhang also stressed that individual customers are often an important force supporting the performance of photovoltaic equipment companies, which raises the risk of recovery of accounts receivable and funds in place.

For example, in April 2011, Jinggong Technology signed a contract of 650 million yuan with GCL Silicon Materials Co., Ltd., and in 2011, Jinggong Technology's revenue was 2.6 billion yuan. It can be seen that GCL silicon material One customer accounts for one quarter of Jinggong’s annual revenue. "If these large customers receive payment and delay payment, the capital turnover of upstream equipment manufacturers will increase," said Mr. Zhang.

To this end, he said that the company will not spend too much effort on sales of photovoltaic equipment, and is turning to the development of sapphire LED substrate equipment, natural gas and unconventional gas well equipment, and nuclear power equipment.