After the stock market closed yesterday, it announced that it has signed an agreement with a ‘leading solar module distributor/developer’ for a minimum 180 MW of solar modules to be delivered over the next three years.
The customer has placed a deposit and the first delivery of the modules will be next month.
The total projected revenue for Anwell is more than USD300 million, the biggest order yet for the solar division of the company, which is listed on the Singapore Exchange.
The delivery would more or less be equally spread out over each quarter and each year, said Franky Fan, the executive chairman of Anwell in a media interview by phone.
He could not disclose the identity and country of origin of the customer but added that it is possible that the contract could exceed 180MW.
All he could say in response to questions was that the solar modules “would not be used in China.”
Prior to this big order, Anwell had been busy selling modules to Europe, the United States, and Australia. The cumulative revenue is not known.
China, despite its ambitions to tap on renewable energy, is still a very small market, accounting for 1-2% of the world demand, said Mr Fan. In years to come, however, it would grow into a significant market.
In the meantime, the economics of the industry continue to favour solar module manufacturers.
Industry-wide, the production cost of thin-film modules is less than US$0.70 per watt (before factoring in the depreciation cost of the manufacturing equipment) while the selling price ranges between US$1.20 and US$1.50 per watt.
Anwell enjoys lower costs as its advanced equipment was self-developed, and operates at a superior level of efficiency, said Mr Fan.
Riding on its cost advantages, it is in the midst of expanding its production capacity from the original 40 MW to 100 MW by the end of this year and to 120-150 MW by the first half of 2011, said Mr Fan.
Anwell has ventured into the solar business through applying its proprietary technologies in developing manufacturing equipment for optical media and OLED.
Grants and other forms of support by the Chinese government have enabled Anwell to rise to be a global player in its industries.
Aside from solar, the Blu-Ray disc business promises to be a new dawn for the company. In July, Anwell signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a global media manufacturer to develop Blu-Ray disc manufacturing equipment that potentially will rake in US$100 million in revenue for Anwell over the next three years.
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