Solar PV inverter manufacturer from Germany, SMA Solar Technology AG has reported strong financials for all business segments in 9M/2023 with almost an 85% YoY increase in consolidated sales. It sold 12.89 GW of PV inverter capacity during the period, up from 8.73 GW in 9M/2022, reflecting 47.7% YoY growth.
With this inverter capacity shipped, the company has already exceeded the 12.22 GW it shipped in all of 2022.
A total of 71.9% came from external sales to Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), followed by 21.9% in the Americas and 6.2% in the Asia Pacific.
While the €1.34 billion in sales during the period was led by €486.2 million contributed by the home solutions segment, sales for the other segments also grew significantly. The large-scale & project solutions segment brought in €517.5 million with a 70.5% YoY jump. The commercial and industrial (C&I) business sales improved by 74.4% to €333.7 million.
"Our growth across all segments indicates that we are on the right track with our clear focus on customer centricity and realignment of SMA along the core processes in the segments," said SMA CEO Dr. Jürgen Reinert.
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, which means it met the lower end of the guidance (see SMA Solar Raises 2023 Sales & EBITDA Guidance).
During Q3/2023, sales added up to €558 million, led by the home solutions business, and EBITDA €106 million.
The company's order backlog as of September 30, 2023 was worth €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. Most of the order backlog exists in the EMEA region and the Americas.
"The SMA Group has also already positioned itself in the high-margin and still strongly growing business field of green hydrogen generation," stated the management. "In addition, we will almost double our production capacities for inverter technology at our headquarters in Niestetal/Kassel, Germany, from 21 GW to around 40 GW starting 2025 and create more than 200 additional high-quality, regional jobs. This will increase the company's flexibility in a dynamic market environment and will minimize risks, dependencies and costs."
For full year 2023, the manufacturer continues to expect consolidated sales of €1.8 billion to €1.9 billion, and EBITDA between €285 million and €325 million.