In this brutal market for solar power products, no one is being spared. Even First Solar
Applied Materials
The seriousness of the situation definitely sank in yesterday, with the company announcing that its $1.9 billion sales agreement with an unnamed private company has been slashed to $250 million. That represents a reduction of roughly 87%. Even under the amended agreement, no orders have been recognized to date.
For close to a year, Applied's mystery buyer has been rumored to be Best Solar, a thin-film startup venture by one Mr. Peng of LDK Solar
Fortunately, Applied Materials has managed to get some good press out of its SunFab rollouts. There was the recent ramp-up of a manufacturing line by Chinese customer ENN, for example. Still, the fact that the equipment works is little consolation in the face of an order backlog with very little visibility at present.