Financial accidents, layoffs, business adjustments, and the turmoil of the US PV giants are due to the laws of the market? Or is there another reason behind it?
文 / NE-SALON新能荟小编团
According to Reuters, the American photovoltaic giant SunPower announced on the evening of the 24th that due to the impact of the market environment and increasing financial pressure, the company will lay off about 1,000 employees, accounting for 25% of the company's total number of employees.
The company's CEO, Tom Werner, announced the decision in an open letter to all internal employees, and SunPower announced that it would cease to carry out residential PV installation and direct sales and hand over the business to its subsidiary, Blue Raven Solar.
According to the analysis report issued by JPMorgan Chase, SunPower will focus most of its efforts on the operation and maintenance of its dealer network and installation partners in the future, and transform into an asset-light third-party sales company.
The media expects SunPower to spend at least $28 million to achieve this strategic goal, including severance pay for employees, liquidated damages for early termination of contracts, and impairment treatment of related assets. According to the company's internal estimates, this major operation of "layoffs + streamlining business" will be completed by the end of June.
According to data provided by Reuters, the company had nearly 600,000 residential solar customers as of December 31, 2023, so why is it suddenly in financial trouble?
The first is the financial pressure, just a day before the CEO announced the layoffs, the company made adjustments to its 2022 and 2023 financial reports, announcing a major omission in the 2022 financial data.
According to the company's statement, its 2022 sales commissions were incorrectly classified as a cost of revenue, resulting in a material error in the calculation of the company's gross margin and operating costs. After adjustment, the company's pre-tax income for 2022 will be reduced by approximately $15 million-$25 million.
The second is the change in the market, the California government has reduced the subsidy for residential solar users to supply electricity to the grid, which directly reduces the incentive of residents to install solar systems, which in turn affects SunPower's business development.
In the letter, Tom Werner wrote that "while management is trying to avoid such an outcome, the market recovery has been much slower than they expected".
But coincidentally, just hours before SunPower announced the layoffs, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had just arrived in Shanghai to begin his visit to China.
Just a week ago, Tesla announced without warning that it would lay off 14,000 employees, or 10% of its global workforce.
Photovoltaic modules and new energy vehicles are the second of the "new three types of foreign trade" in the United States' mouth of the mainland's "overcapacity", and Blinken hyped up the topic of China's "overcapacity" at the G7 foreign ministers' meeting before coming to China, which is also one of the main topics he wants to talk about in China.
At this sensitive moment, the US photovoltaic giants and new energy vehicle giants have announced layoffs, is it really a "coincidence"? or are they "cooperating" with Blinken?