The Solar Market Is Going to Be Better by Second-Quarter 2012

The solar market is going to be better by second-quarter 2012, said Chi-jen Chen, chairman of Taiwan-based conductive paste maker Giga Solar. Due to the falling of utilization rates in the market in fourth-quarter 2011 and price drops of silver conductive pastes, the fourth quarter revenues are likely to show decreases on month. Chen indicated that the market has started rebounding in January with utilization rates at the customer end rising compared to November and December. Giga Solar's 2011 alumunium shipments are approximately 2,000 tons. The firm expects sales for the product to grow by 10-20% in 2012. In addition, back silver conductive pastes have been showing growth with 2011 total shipments around 28-30 tons. In 2012, Giga Solar noted, the shipments of back silver pastes are likely to show tremendous growth due to new customers. Chen concluded that the global solar market has been clearing out inventories since fourth-quarter 2011, hence the balance between demand and supply has been slowly restored. Source: www.digitimes.com