LOS ANGELES, Jan 12 (Reuters) – JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd (JASO.O)
expects demand for solar power parts to rebound in 2010, a company
executive said on Tuesday.
Global demand could reach as much as nine gigawatts, Ming Yang, JA
Solar's vice president of business development, said at a
conference hosted by Needham & Co in New York that was monitored by
webcast.
"That market should grow at about a 30 percent per year clip over
the next two to three years," he said.
Demand for solar power products has picked up after a difficult
2009, when the global credit crisis dried up financing for new
projects and panel prices plummeted.
JA Solar, one of the sector's lower-cost producers of silicon cells
that help convert sunlight into electricity, and other Chinese
solar players such as Trina Solar Ltd (TSL.N) have seized on the
rising demand. Several plan to boost production capacity in 2010.
Macquarie Securities analyst Kelly Dougherty wrote she remained
"most bullish" on JA Solar and its peers Trina Solar and Canadian
Solar Inc (CSIQ.O).
"As the Chinese cost structures improve further over the next few
quarters, we expect them to capitalize on their cost advantage to
keep demand high and continue capturing market share from their
higher cost Western peers," Dougherty said in a note released on
Tuesday before JA Solar's presentation.
Yang said he expected pricing for solar cells to drop by a "low
single-digit" percentage in the first quarter of 2010.
Overseas sales for JA Solar are increasing, Yang said, noting the
proportion could exceed 30 percent in 2010, and reach 50 percent by
the end of the year.
JA Solar closed down 5.5 percent at $6.35 on Nasdaq on Tuesday. The
stock hit a new 12-month high of $6.95 on Jan. 6 and has climbed
more than 250 percent from a 12-month low in March.
