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SFCE aug 5
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Shunfeng expects 50% drop in profit for H1 2015
Aug 5, 2015 | PV Tech
By John Parnell
Clean energy firm and PV developer Shunfeng has warned that its profits could fall by as much as 50% for H1 2015 compared to the same period last year. -
Shunfeng of China sees 50% lower profits in H1 2015
Aug 5, 2015 | See news Renewables
By Militsa Mancheva
China-based Shunfeng International Clean Energy Ltd (HKG:1165) said Tuesday it expects its net profit for the first half of 2015 to drop by over 50% year-on-year, based on preliminary statistics. -
Shunfeng forecasts 50% drop in H1 net profit
| Recharge Magazine
By Brian Publicover
Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE) has revealed that its net profit may plunge by more than 50% on the year in the first half of 2015. -
China's War on Pollution Altering Nation's Behavior
Aug 5, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Michael Standaert
Chinese companies concerned about their reputations, consumers aware of environmental health issues and the government's war on pollution are all driving nationwide compliance to China's latest environmental regulations, a new report has found. -
SolarCity expands into Mexico with $15m purchase of Ilioss
Aug 5, 2015 | PV Magazine
Acquisition marks first time the U.S. solar company has expanded internationally, sees Mexican market as exciting and ideal location for extension of its financing model.
SFCE News
Industry News
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Shunfeng expects 50% drop in profit for H1 2015
Aug 5, 2015 | PV Tech
By John Parnell
Clean energy firm and PV developer Shunfeng has warned that its profits could fall by as much as 50% for H1 2015 compared to the same period last year.
Its unaudited net profit for H1 2014 was RMB503.9 million (US$81.1 million). Shares were down around 12% at the time of publication.
In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange the company, which owns module maker Suntech, blamed a number of factors including declining panel average selling prices.
The filing stated that “intensive competition in the solar market resulting in a decline in average selling prices of the Group’s solar products by approximately 20% as compared to the same period in the previous year, despite the sales volume of the Group’s solar products and electricity generated [increasing] by approximately 20% and 200% respectively”.
It also cited increased administrative and borrowing costs. An accounting quirk has alo left the company unable to dilute the impact if interest payments relating to loans for the development of solar farms.
http://www.pv-tech.org/news/shunfeng_expects_50_drop_in_profit_for_h1_2015
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Shunfeng of China sees 50% lower profits in H1 2015
Aug 5, 2015 | See news Renewables
By Militsa Mancheva
China-based Shunfeng International Clean Energy Ltd (HKG:1165) said Tuesday it expects its net profit for the first half of 2015 to drop by over 50% year-on-year, based on preliminary statistics.
The company, previously known as Shunfeng Photovoltaic International, booked a CNY-503.9-million (USD 81.1m/EUR 74.7m) unaudited net profit in the same six months of 2014.
The firm explained that the projected decline in its bottom line can be mainly attributed to a 20% year-on-year decrease in January-June average selling prices (ASP) for photovoltaic (PV) products, resulting from “the intensive competition in the solar market”. The lower ASP offsets the good results of Shunfeng’s solar products and electricity generation businesses, which registered roughly 20% and 200% higher revenues, respectively.
Among other factors to hurt Shunfeng’s first-half performance are the significantly higher sale and administrative expenses, coupled with an increase in convertible bonds financial costs. In addition, the company was unable to capitalise on certain interest expenses relating to the development of its solar farms, most of which were in normal operation.
Shunfeng is a fully-integrated solar company, which operates in both the upstream and downstream solar segments. The parent of Wuxi Suntech is currently finalising its audited financial report for the six months through end-June, which is to be published in August 2015.
(CNY 1.0 = USD 0.161/EUR 0.148)
http://renewables.seenews.com/news/shunfeng-of-china-sees-50-lower-profits-in-h1-2015-487180
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Shunfeng forecasts 50% drop in H1 net profit
| Recharge Magazine
By Brian Publicover
Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE) has revealed that its net profit may plunge by more than 50% on the year in the first half of 2015.
http://www.rechargenews.com/solar/1407703/shunfeng-forecasts-50-percent-drop-in-h1-net-profit
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China's War on Pollution Altering Nation's Behavior
Aug 5, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Michael Standaert
Chinese companies concerned about their reputations, consumers aware of environmental health issues and the government's war on pollution are all driving nationwide compliance to China's latest environmental regulations, a new report has found.
While socially responsible investments and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are still in the early stages of adoption, there is a growing belief that these practices also will help drive compliance and change, according to a China Carbon Forum report released July 31.
“The companies that are taking up the challenges [of greater environmental compliance] are the ones who are becoming global companies,” Craig Hart, lead author for the report and a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, School of Environment & Natural Resources, told Bloomberg BNA Aug. 4. “They have to step over the transom, have to embrace higher standards of conduct in their operations.”
According to the report, “Corporate Strategy & Competitive Advantage in China's War on Pollution,” the nation's forward-looking companies are manufacturing products that use less packaging and adapting system redesigns that increase energy efficiency in addition to adopting more innovative strategies to raise standards and using information technology to improve design and operations.
Supply Chains Getting Greener
Chinese companies with supply chains that are either part of foreign supply chains or with products targeting foreign markets are also becoming greener, due to higher environmental standards on products in some export markets and mandated compliance issues in those companies' home countries.
“The Chinese government wants leading global companies,” Hart said in phone interview. “Those are the companies you start with, those are the ones that start making changes, that have impacts on supply chains and, hopefully, bring discipline to the smaller suppliers that would be difficult to get after.”
But small and medium-size companies that compete on price and have smaller profit margins are not as concerned about the risks associated with not complying to government environmental regulations or the benefits of innovative strategies, according to the report.
Improving Practices
The nexus between environmental protection and corruption, with China's central government declaring a war on each of these areas during the past two years, challenge industry to improve environmental and business practices, the report said.
“We are hearing anecdotally that companies are concerned [about compliance with the latest environmental regulations], that some people we are talking to are getting inquiries, and there is a concern about being hit by enforcement actions, and a lot of concern about the anti-corruption campaign,” said Hart. “Where there is environmental noncompliance, there is usually corruption.”
Besides Chinese companies going global and supply chains going out to foreign markets, Chinese consumers with greater purchasing power also are swaying environmental actions with their pocketbooks.
Consumer Actions
Food safety and the impact of pollution on agriculture are leading Chinese consumers to buy more organic foods, meat and dairy products from abroad, and to spend more on safer products and materials for their homes, the report found.
These are “themes [that] resonate with consumers” in China, Hart said. Wealthier Chinese are living in cities and suffering from the pollution there and have a “buying power that is a way to make a statement, a way of being heard,” he added.
Still, many real changes are likely a decade or more away, Hart admits.
For example, there is little criteria in China on how listed companies should disclose their emissions and other environmental performance, and it could take time to get a system in place, Hart said.
At the moment, there has been a jump in the amount of voluntary reports being released, but the quality of these can vary widely. “There's been a proliferation of ESG and CSR reports, but how meaningful these are is a concern,” he said. “We are the very early stages of this.”
The biggest risk for the Chinese government is if its policies—its war on pollution; the fledgling carbon market; greater water, air and soil emissions controls—fail (52 DEN A-7, 3/18/15).
They could fail without greater transparency and disclosure of pollution data, more media access, and a greater overall openness that would give “markets a decisive role, ” the main reform pledge at the first major government meetings after President Xi Jinping took office in 2013.
While socially responsible investments and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria are still in the early stages of adoption, there is a growing belief that these practices also will help drive compliance and change, according to a China Carbon Forum report released July 31.
“The companies that are taking up the challenges [of greater environmental compliance] are the ones who are becoming global companies,” Craig Hart, lead author for the report and a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, School of Environment & Natural Resources, told Bloomberg BNA Aug. 4. “They have to step over the transom, have to embrace higher standards of conduct in their operations.”
According to the report, “Corporate Strategy & Competitive Advantage in China's War on Pollution,” the nation's forward-looking companies are manufacturing products that use less packaging and adapting system redesigns that increase energy efficiency in addition to adopting more innovative strategies to raise standards and using information technology to improve design and operations.
Supply Chains Getting Greener
Chinese companies with supply chains that are either part of foreign supply chains or with products targeting foreign markets are also becoming greener, due to higher environmental standards on products in some export markets and mandated compliance issues in those companies' home countries.
“The Chinese government wants leading global companies,” Hart said in phone interview. “Those are the companies you start with, those are the ones that start making changes, that have impacts on supply chains and, hopefully, bring discipline to the smaller suppliers that would be difficult to get after.”
But small and medium-size companies that compete on price and have smaller profit margins are not as concerned about the risks associated with not complying to government environmental regulations or the benefits of innovative strategies, according to the report.
Improving Practices
The nexus between environmental protection and corruption, with China's central government declaring a war on each of these areas during the past two years, challenge industry to improve environmental and business practices, the report said.
“We are hearing anecdotally that companies are concerned [about compliance with the latest environmental regulations], that some people we are talking to are getting inquiries, and there is a concern about being hit by enforcement actions, and a lot of concern about the anti-corruption campaign,” said Hart. “Where there is environmental noncompliance, there is usually corruption.”
Besides Chinese companies going global and supply chains going out to foreign markets, Chinese consumers with greater purchasing power also are swaying environmental actions with their pocketbooks.
Consumer Actions
Food safety and the impact of pollution on agriculture are leading Chinese consumers to buy more organic foods, meat and dairy products from abroad, and to spend more on safer products and materials for their homes, the report found.
These are “themes [that] resonate with consumers” in China, Hart said. Wealthier Chinese are living in cities and suffering from the pollution there and have a “buying power that is a way to make a statement, a way of being heard,” he added.
Still, many real changes are likely a decade or more away, Hart admits.
For example, there is little criteria in China on how listed companies should disclose their emissions and other environmental performance, and it could take time to get a system in place, Hart said.
At the moment, there has been a jump in the amount of voluntary reports being released, but the quality of these can vary widely. “There's been a proliferation of ESG and CSR reports, but how meaningful these are is a concern,” he said. “We are the very early stages of this.”
The biggest risk for the Chinese government is if its policies—its war on pollution; the fledgling carbon market; greater water, air and soil emissions controls—fail (52 DEN A-7, 3/18/15).
They could fail without greater transparency and disclosure of pollution data, more media access, and a greater overall openness that would give “markets a decisive role, ” the main reform pledge at the first major government meetings after President Xi Jinping took office in 2013.
Link (subscription needed): http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=73682558&vname=dennotallissues&fn=73682558&jd=73682558
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SolarCity expands into Mexico with $15m purchase of Ilioss
Aug 5, 2015 | PV Magazine
U.S. solar leasing and financing company SolarCity confirmed Wednesday that it is to acquire Mexican solar installer Ilioss for $15 million in a venture that marks the company’s first foray into foreign markets.
Ilioss operates a similar business model to SolarCity, and has been in business for four years following its creation by entrepreneurs Manuel Vegara and David Arelle. SolarCity will pay $10 million in cash and a further potential $5 million in deployment milestones to acquire the company.
With excellent solar irradiation levels, high utility electricity prices, a growing middle class and close proximity to the U.S., the Mexican solar market is one of immense potential, and SolarCity sees it as the perfect "jumping off point" for any further expansion into Latin America.
Ilioss’s approach to solar growth has been largely similar to SolarCity’s, with the company even partnering with large Mexican department store chain Soriana to install solar panels atop the roofs of hundreds of its stores. The installer offers low upfront costs for customers, and charges them cheaper monthly rates for their solar electricity than the utilities, sometimes by as much as 15%.
Initially, SolarCity will work with Ilioss in the industrial and commercial market before venturing into the residential sector.
"Mexico is an exciting market for us," remarked SolarCity SVP of global strategies and global expansion Marco Krapels. "We believe we have an opportunity to dominate that market in the same way that we dominate the market in the U.S."
SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive cited Mexico’s accelerating solar installation rates as a persuasive pull factor for the company, stating that growth will likely be faster in Mexico than the U.S. because of less red tape and a simpler grid interconnection process.
"I’m convinced that the Mexican market will scale way faster than the U.S. market," Rive said.
Mexico is targeting 5% renewable energy penetration nationally by 2018, and 35% by 2024. Recent energy reforms have been passed enabling big businesses and industrial consumers to buy energy directly from independent power producers rather than the state-backed utility behemoths. The effect is an ongoing liberalization of the energy market, with solar at the forefront of change.
SolarCity’s involvement on Ilioss’ patch will see the U.S. installer bring its installation, marketing and engineering expertise to the table, and will self-install all solar arrays themselves. Currently, Ilioss uses third-party contractors to complete installations, which brings an added cost dimension to the client.
Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/solarcity-expands-into-mexico-with-15m-purchase-of-ilioss_100020506/#ixzz3hxD4VsaY
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