News Article
Tokyo Electron Withdraw from PV Panel Production
Tokyo Electron has announced withdrawal from the PV panel production equipment ("PVE") business as early as March this year.
This news is not unexpected and follows two difficult years in the industry. In 2012, Tokyo Electron acquired Swiss based Oerlikon Solar making a full-fledged entry into the thin-film silicon PV panel market at a time of serious oversupply.
Amid uncertainties of a recovery in the market environment, the company has decided to scale down the business structure-halt development, production, and sales activities for PV panel production equipment and limit operations to support for equipment already delivered-given continually weak revenues and as they do not expect to recoup the investment in this business environment
The Company hopes to reassign the employees in this business to other positions within the Tokyo Electron Group: However the Swiss subsidiary may see a streamlining via reductions in personnel.
The Tokyo Electron Group had announced late last year a review of business plans, including those for the PVE business. The company declared at that time that a large loss was inevitable.
The results for the third quarter ending March 31, 2014, will be announced separately and will include a total loss of 46.7 billion yen, of which 32.6 billion yen was to write off loss of goodwill and fixed assets related to the PVE business.
Last year Tokyo Electron Ltd agreed to be bought by Applied Materials Inc.