SMA cuts sales guidance due to supply chain challenges, project pushbacks

Inverter supplier SMA Solar Technology has lowered its revenue and earnings guidance for the remainder of the year due to the undersupply of electronic components.
CEO Jürgen Reinert said that as a result of recent delivery cancellations, the situation has “worsened significantly” for the company in the short term, adding: “We are also seeing that project developers and investors are postponing the implementation of larger PV projects until the following year.”
SMA’s board now expects 2021 sales to be €980 million – €1,030 million (US$1,158 million – US$1,217 million), down on the firm’s previous guidance of €1,075 million – €1,175 million. Full-year EBITDA is expected to be €50 million – €65 million, compared to the earlier €75 million – €95 million forecast.
Despite warning of potential delivery capacity constraints for the remainder of the year, SMA had confirmed its previous sales and earnings guidance in its H1 results statement, published last month.
“We are in intensive contact with our partners on the supplier side in order to develop suitable solutions to secure deliveries and to compensate for delivery delays as far as possible in the coming weeks,” Reinert said.
The company continues to expect H2 sales to be higher than those in H1, when sales declined 5% year-on-year to €488.3 million (US$573.1 million). It said this was down to a reluctance among small and medium-sized businesses to invest early in the year because of uncertainties surrounding COVID-19.
SMA said in its H1 results announcement that while it maintained supply chains in the first half, a shortage of electronic components had a “minor overall impact” on sales. Nonetheless, H1 EBITDA of €38.1 million was up 59% on the same six months last year.
Supply chain challenges were also recently noted by Enphase Energy, which is adding new suppliers of drivers used in its flagship microinverter products. In its second-quarter results announcement, the company said supply constraints were impacting the rollout of its IQ8 microinverters.
Elsewhere, module manufacturers have also been affected by supply chain bottlenecks, with Meyer Burger missing components required for the full ramp-up of its plants in Germany and Maxeon Solar Technologies revealing last month it may not be able to deliver some products to customers on time due to raw materials and components supply issues.