While orders have been increasing since the beginning of 2013, Taiwan-based crystalline silicon solar cell maker Gintech Energy is inclined to stop production during the 2013 Lunar New Year in mid-February but fellow maker Neo Solar Power plans to maintain 24-hour production at three shifts a day, according to the companies.
Although orders have booked up production capacity, prices are not at a reasonable level and therefore more production cannot earn more for the company, so production will come to a halt during the Lunar New Year, Gintech pointed out.
One of Neo Solar's two factories has been utilizing 90% of production capacity and the other has reached about 80% utilization, the company indicated. Neo Solar aims to increase the overall production capacity to 100% during the Lunar New Year, the company noted. However, Neo Solar will accept only orders with reasonable prices, the company pointed out.
Because prices are not reasonable, fellow maker Solartech Energy has not decided on whether to stop production during the Lunar New Year, the company noted. Mainly due to the selection of orders, Solartech has not attained full utilization of production capacity but its production runs for 24 hours a day currently, the company indicated.
In contrast, it is difficult for some China-based makers to hike capacity utilization due to short supply of labor before the Lunar New Year, Taiwan-based makers pointed out.