Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger has guided another strong year of order intake and annual revenue as the industry continues a major technology migration. 

Meyer Burger reported total incoming orders of CHF 560.7 million (US$592 million) in 2017, an increase of 23% compared to the previous year and represented the highest level of incoming orders for the past six years. 

The company noted that in its Photovoltaics segment, a number of large orders had been placed especially for PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) technologies using its ‘MAiA’ in-line system based on its proprietary PECVD technology as well as its Heterojunction technology and diamond wire wafer technology. 

The migration to PERC technology was noted to have been at a faster pace than previously expected with almost all standard mono-Si cell capacity expected to be switched to PERC by the end of 2018. Meyer Burger said that it its MAiA 2.1 platform was estimated to have taken around a 70% market share. 

However, the migration of multi-Si cells to PERC was going at a slower pace due to degradation issues. 

Meyer Burger also noted that although incoming orders in the first two months of 2018 were around CHF 36.2 million (US$38.2 million), order momentum was expected to pick up again during the course of the year as second tier cell producers would upgrade to PERC.

As a result, the company is targeting net sales of between CHF 450 – 500 million and an EBITDA margin of about 10% in 2018. 

The order backlog at the end of 2017 was CHF 343.8 million (US$363 million), compared to CHF 244.5 million at the end of 2016. The book-to-bill ratio (incoming orders to net sales) was 1.18, up from 1.01 in 2016.

Net sales in 2018 increased by 4% to CHF 473.3 million (US$499.8 million) in 2017. 

R&D spending was CHF 43.4 million (US$45.8 million) in 2017, accounting for 9.2% of net sales, slightly less (CHF 46.7 million) that was spent in 2016. The lower spending was partially due to a reduction in R&D personnel, declining to 232, compared to 307 in 2016. The company has undertaken a number of restructuring activities in 2017.