Centrotherm registered an order intake of €106.8 million ($152.4 million) in the first six months of this year, thus slightly improving on its performance from the same period a year earlier. The company said this increase was mainly due to stronger demand for its production equipment for PERC solar cells, as well as for its FHR equipment for the coating of solar cells.

Order book position reached €167.3 million as of the end of June. This was due to a major order for coating equipment for CIGS modules from its subsidiary FHR Anlagenbau GmbH (Thin Film & Customized Equipment segment), received from Germany’s Manz AG.

Revenue for the first half of 2017 was €52.6 million, slightly down from €61.9 million in the same period of last year. Furthermore, the company reports that the book-to-bill ratio was 2.0, and that €33.6 million of turnover was attributable to the photovoltaics & semiconductor segment. Another €11.7 million was achieved by the thin film & customized equipment segment, while the remaining €7.3 million came from the silicon segment.

The renewed high level of total operating performance of €73.5 million, the company said, reflects the significant utilization of production capacity at the Blaubeuren site, in Germany.

Ebitda improved slightly year-on-year, from €0.1 million to €0.5 million. The operating result of the solar division reached €1.3 million, while that of the thin-film segment was €1.0 million. The silicon segment also registered an improved Ebitda loss, which decreased from €2.7 million to €1.7 million. The company’s Ebit was almost halved to €0.9 million. The consolidated result after tax amount to -€2.4 million, down from -€2.1 million a year earlier.

A week earlier, Centrotherm had revised down its outlook for the current fiscal year. The company said it now expects revenue to range from €120 million to €160 million.