SMA Solar's sales decline as minimal chip supply dents Q1 performance

• Inverter supplier SMA Solar Technology remains to be influenced by substantial obstacles about the limited electronic supply of electronic components.

Reporting its Q1 results today, the firm published sales of EUR220.6 million (US$ 233 million), an 8.2% decrease on the exact same quarter last year, as a result of ongoing chip shortages.

Worldwide production capacities for electrical components are not sufficient to cover the sharply boosted need, particularly from the auto electronic devices and also consumer electronics sectors, because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to SMA.

The firm claimed this sometimes causes considerable prolongation of delivery periods "finishing in distribution failure".

Replying to the chip shortage, SMA has actually established a cross-divisional task force while also making use of redesign possibilities for items that are particularly impacted. Nevertheless, monitoring thinks that the situation will certainly not relieve considerably throughout 2022.

CEO Jürgen Reinert said the business is anticipating considerable market growth both for its core service of PV in addition to for battery storage systems, power administration e-mobility and also hydrogen production as fields for the future. "SMA will certainly be able to benefit from that once the component shortage has been overcome," he added.

During Q1 the company offered 2,788 MW of inverters, a 17% decline on the exact same quarter last year, while EBITDA fell 26.4% to EUR14.8 million.

In the reporting period, SMA created 54.1% of external sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 24.7% in the Americas and also 21.2% in the Asia-Pacific region. Its large scale and also project remedies segment made the biggest contribution to sales, making up 46%, compared with 28.4% for the house remedies company and 25.6% for the commercial as well as industrial device.

As of March, SMA had an order stockpile of EUR1.05 billion, 25% greater than the very same time last year, as it recorded its highest order intake in the last ten years.

Reinert said that regardless of the strained supply of electronic components, the firm anticipates to record a lot of the product-related order backlog as sales by the end of the year.

SMA management has validated its 2022 assistance, as published in March, forecasting sales of EUR900 million-- 1.05 billion and EBITDA of EUR10-- 60 million.