European Manufacturing Triggers Orders For Photovoltaic Equipment

According to information released by the German engineering association VDMA, demand for PV manufacturing equipment orders in Europe surged in the second quarter of this year, with sales not only quadrupling compared to the beginning of the outbreak, but European orders received in the first half of 2022 were already four times the value of all European orders in 2021, and Q2 ringed in at a 62% increase compared to Q1.

For the first time since the VDMA began collecting and publishing this data in 2018, German PV production equipment suppliers received more equipment orders from Europe than from China; the last recollection for German equipment suppliers was probably more than ten years ago.

In an environment where Europe, the US and India are all emphasising local manufacturing, the world's major installed PV markets are actively laying out local PV module manufacturing capacity, which is the easiest manufacturing segment to cut through, just as Chinese PV manufacturing entered the PV sector 15 years ago. The difference is that Chinese manufacturers back then even OEM and OEM branding, European manufacturers may not be able to pull this off.

Similar to the situation of German equipment manufacturers, Chinese manufacturers of PV module equipment have also seen a boom in overseas markets.

-In April this year, Maiwei announced that India's Reliance Industries intends to purchase eight complete lines of solar heterojunction (HJT) cell production equipment, with the total purchase amount exceeding 50% of the company's annual revenue in 2021.

-In May this year, Jinchen said its overseas revenue grew by more than 100% in FY2021, and the overseas market demand is strong in 2022 and is expected to grow further from last year's level, and the company is increasing its market layout in India, Southeast Asia and other regions.

-In July this year, Jie Jia Wei Chuang said that benefiting from the global development of clean energy, the company's overseas equipment sales continued to improve, exporting to India, Southeast Asia, Europe and other countries or regions.

Even data from the VDMA shows that German equipment manufacturers continue to dominate shipments to Asia despite strong orders from Europe. As a result of various PV tariff and non-tariff barrier measures in Europe and the United States, as well as the United States, especially Europe, followed the United States to put forward the so-called "forced labour", especially the United States, Europe, India have introduced tax breaks and incentives for local manufacturing, not only to stimulate the expansion of local PV module manufacturing capacity in Europe, the United States and India, but also to stimulate the Chinese enterprises overseas production capacity layout.

In the past 10 years, the Chinese market has been leading the way in PV cutting-edge technology and advanced manufacturing, thus fostering a large number of mature Chinese PV equipment manufacturers, and in this wave of overseas market expansion, Chinese PV equipment suppliers are also enjoying the dividends.

Almost at the same time as Mighty has signed a contract with Reliance (REC's holding company), Jinchen signed a 2GW PV module equipment contract with Indian energy giant Adani; at Intersolar Europe 2022, Jinchen reached a cooperation agreement with HSA Energy, a well-known solar module manufacturer in Turkey, for a 500MW highly automated PV module production line. The "cloud signing" ceremony was completed on site.

JaguarVector said that the company currently has sufficient orders on hand for equipment in PERC, TOPCon, HJT and other technology lines, and orders for TOPCon equipment and overseas orders are gradually increasing.

The TOPCon, as Jaguar Videotron calls it, has been promoted and applied in recent years almost exclusively by Chinese companies such as Zhonglai, Jinko and Together New Energy, with the corresponding equipment innovation and practice mostly led by Chinese companies. In addition to Jaguar Videotron, Wuxi Microguide and Shenzhen Laplace have also become global leaders in the field of PVD, ALD, etching machines and other equipment. Therefore, when Europe and the US want to bend the curve to catch up in PV manufacturing, they must adopt the new generation of cell technology, and Chinese PV equipment suppliers are almost the best, and perhaps the only, option.

The VDMA expects European PV equipment sales to increase in the third quarter, mainly due to the removal of supply chain bottlenecks, while the biggest growth driver for equipment manufacturers remains the PV module manufacturing business. For Chinese companies, the increase in PV module capacity in Europe and the US presents both opportunities and challenges. Even though some equipment areas have taken the lead in recent years, how to eliminate the arrogance and prejudice deep inside the hearts of European and US customers and how to advertise with empirical production capacity are issues that must be considered.