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German Solar Inverter Major SMA Solar is riding the solar wave well, with sales at record highs. For the quarter ended September 2023, the firm reported a strong financials for all business segments in 9M/2023 with close to 85% YoY increase in consolidated sales. PV Inverter sales during the year crossed 12.89 GW of PV inverter capacity, up from 8.73 GW in 9M/2022, reflecting 47.7% YoY growth. The firm has an order book of €2 billion in hand, indicating the strong momentum and prospects for the future,
Sales were dominated by demand from the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Asia) region, with 71.9% share, followed by 21.9% in the Americas and 6.2% in the Asia Pacific. During Q3/2023, sales added up to €558 million, led by the home solutions business, and EBITDA €106 million.
The €1.34 billion in sales in the 9 month period was led by €486.2 million contributed by the home solutions segment, large-scale & project solutions segment brought in €517.5 million, a 70.5% YoY jump. The commercial and industrial (C&I) business sales improved by 74.4% to €333.7 million.
Net income for the period improved by over 1,500% from €11 million in 9M/2022 to €180 million. EBITDA was reported to have increased by 360.6% to €231.2 million.
With an order backlog of €2.02 billion, comprising €931 million in large-scale & project solutions, €396 million in C&I, €320 million in home solutions and €374 million in the service segment, the company is booked out for the next three quarters and beyond.
The firm's next focus is the green hydrogen segment, considered to be higher margin. Plans include doubling production capacities for inverter technology at its key headquarters plant in Niestetal/Kassel, Germany, from 21 GW to around 40 GW starting 2025.
The strong show from SMA follows similarly strong numbers from the leading global majors from China, all of whom have enjoyed unprecedented record profits so far. For SMA Solar, even as it's global market share might have gone up, the current boom offers a great opportunity to recover strongly with a larger balance sheet and seek greater growth for the comining decade,