Motech aims to rank among world's top-3 solar cell suppliers by 2010

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 28, 2006. It reports that Taiwan's Motech Industries Inc. plans to become one of the world's top three suppliers of solar cells in 2010, by increasing the output capacity of its cells to one gigawatt. In 2005, the company was the ninth-largest global supplier, with an output of 60 megawatts of solar cells.

In 2005, the No.1 and No.2 global suppliers of solar cells were Japan's Sharp and Germany's Q-Cells. Sharp had an output of 427.5 megawatts, while Q-Cells had 165.7 megawatts. The No.3 global supplier of solar cells in 2005 was Japan's Kyocera, which had an output of 142 megawatts. In 2006, Sharp, Q-Cells and Kyocera plan to boost their outputs to 600, 350 and 240 megawatts, respectively.

Facing such strong competition, Motech aims to increase its output capacity to 100 megawatts worth of solar cells in the second quarter of 2006, and to 120 megawatts in July 2006. The company's second factory will see its first production line begin volume production in August 2006, with an initial output of 80 megawatts. Therefore, by the end of 2006, the company will have a total output of 200 megawatts, which will help it retain its No.1 position in Taiwan's solar-cell industry.

According to Motech, its output can reach 240 megawatts by the end of 2006 if material suppliers continue to be readily available. While demands for solar-energy products are likely to remain strong over the next few years, the development of the industry will be dampened if supplies of polysilicon substrate, the solar-cell's primary material, are short.

In 2005, Motech had pre-tax earnings of NT$1.16 billion (US$36.4 million) and after-tax earnings of NT$1.15 billion (US$36.2 million) on revenue of NT$4.3 billion (US$134 million).