DGAP-News

SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES announces key figures for Q1 2017 - Seite 2

The headcount within the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES Group remained at a constant level of 315 employees as of March 31, 2017 (December 31, 2016: 318 employees).

The Market for Production Machines for Solar Cells

At the world's largest solar trade fair SNEC 2017, Shanghai, China, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES presented its new machines for CIGS solar as well as heterojunction technology.

Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck, CEO: "The interest on part of the customers for the new production machines was high. For the market of machines for the production of heterojunction solar cells we have presented a new vacuum sputter machine in Shanghai under the brand name GENERIS PVD." The new machine concept is based on an inline machine, which is able to vacuum coat up to 5,200 solar wafers per hour. With its flexibility and performance, the modularly built machine is directly targeting the requirements of the solar industry. Dr.-Ing. Stefan Rinck continues: "For wet-chemical applications, we have introduced the innovative inline processing machine LINEX for the cleaning and texturing of solar wafers. With its newly developed transport system, the machine guarantees a particularly careful treatment of solar wafers during the cleaning process."

Outlook for the Business Year 2017

For the current business year SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES forecasts a doubling of sales pursuant to IFRS compared with the previous year. The operating result (EBIT) should come in at a low single-digit million level for the Group.

In the current business year in the Solar division, sales are generated from the construction and commissioning of production machines, which are primarily based on a few major project orders. This particularly applies to orders for investments in production lines for thin-film solar modules on the basis of CIGS. Moreover, orders for production machines for crystalline high-performance cells (e. g. heterojunction cells) are expected. The forecast for the annual targets for 2017 mainly rests on the assumption that the solar market will develop favorably in both the CIGS segment as well