Marketshare
May 12, 2013
The paint and dye stuff is a segment in the broacd chemical industry. The industry in itself has experienced some major growth in recent years. The […]
April 22, 2013
BASEL II BASEL II is a new capital adequacy framework designed by the BASEL Committee of Banking Supervision. It is mandated for all the scheduled commercial […]
April 8, 2013
Mike Parker rightly said, “When you don’t invest in infrastructure, you are going to pay sooner or later.” Indian government after realizing the need of development […]
March 9, 2013
Max New York Life Max New York Life (MNYL) is a joint venture between Max India Ltd. and New York Life. The company was incorporated in the […]
March 4, 2013
About Wrigleys The William Wrigley Jr. Company needs no introduction of its own. Every day we come across several of the products manufactured and marketed by […]
February 18, 2013
Indian Telecom Industry 929 million – the number of subscribers, the Indian telecom sector has achieved to become one of the major indicators of and contributors […]
February 1, 2013
Packaging Industry The packaging industry will register strong earnings growth driven by buoyant end-user demand. If we take the historical data and compare the performance of […]
February 1, 2013
What is Insurance Insurance is a contract between two parties whereby one party called insurer undertakes in exchange for a fixed sum called premium, to pay […]
November 19, 2012
Banking System in India Banks have always played a very important role in shaping our daily needs. They have always been playing an important role in […]
August 7, 2012
Smart Phone Industry When you talk of the smartphone market, the talk is all about Apple and Samsung who have cornered over half of the global […]
July 11, 2012
While US Solar Installers are expanding rapidly as solar power grows at a rapid pace across the country, the Sunshine state Florida refuses to adopt legislation […]
July 3, 2012
German Solar Companies Are being pushed out of the solar market they developed by the ruthless assault of Chinese solar panel companies. Already stalwarts of the […]
June 25, 2012
I have always said that investing in Indian mutual funds is a dumb idea given the lack of regulation , under performance, high fees and front […]
June 24, 2012
ITC which is a subsidiary of BAT is India's largest producer of tobacco products and has almost a monopoly position in the manfacture of cigarettes. Using its massive cash flows from the ever prospering tobacco business, the company has diversified into a number of other business segments like retail, agro industry, hotels , paper etc. The company has become one of India's biggest consumer companies using tobacco profits to extend its Indian empire. Lack of government action on tobacco has made it the biggest Indian company However the biggest source of revenue and profits continue to be the cigarrete segment which kills thousands of Indians each year.
June 22, 2012
However India's biggest capital good equipment company BHEL owned by the government is plannning a $500 million investment to build a solar cell factory in at Sakoli which is part Union heavy industries minister Praful Patel's constituency Bhandara.Talk about how dumb you can get. BHEL hardly has too much expertise in the solar panel industry and with solar cells in massive oversupply,it is almost sure to lose money. However that is how things work with Indian government companies where investment is made at the whims of ministers rather than rationality and business sense.BHEL is currently trading at one of the lowest valuations in its 10 year history and its not a big wonder why. The company has benefited in the past as did other machinery and engineering companies from an infrastructure invesment boom. However those glory days are over for the company as it faces competition from the Chinese companies and decreasing orders flow. Praful Patel the minister has already spent a few years in the airline ministry presiding over the conversion of the state owned carrier Air India ino a basket case. Now its the turn of BHEL to be turned into a basket case as well.
June 21, 2012
Updated: 7/06/2016 Japanese Solar Panel companies Sharp, Kyocera, Panasonic-Sanyo, Mitsubishi were the top solar panel producers in the world. Solar Energy in Japan has a long […]
June 20, 2012
State Owned Chinese conglomerates strengthen their position in solar industry during industry crisis
While thousands of small solar companies in the world have gone / are going bust on account of massive industry oversupply and crashed solar panel prices, […]
June 19, 2012
The mobile phone market has changed radically in the last few years with the advent of Apple’s iPhone. The introduction of the Apple smartphone was a […]
May 17, 2012
Indian Insurance Industry Story Sours with Job Losses and Exits with ULIP Reforms and FDI No-Reforms
The Indian Insurance Industrywhich was massively booming like the telecom industry at one time in India is now seeing similar troubles. The industry saw many entrants […]
March 29, 2012
This may be a dramatic statement to make about the world's most valued solar company but there are several reasons which I will explain below to illustrate this point. Note the solar industry is in a league of its own in the astonishing drop it solar panel prices (80% price drop over the last 3-4 years) and the rapid increase in demand (60% CAGR over the last 10 years).So the comparison and analysis by your usual stock hacks on financial portals like Motley and Seeking Alpha is way off the mark. First Solar had the worst 2 quarters in its history in 2011 as it went from a record breaking profit company into the red. Many issues which were hidden by its past success came out in the open and some of them are life threatening. Here are these problems
February 29, 2012
China's solar panel companies can used their government banks backing as a major competitive advantage. Just like their telecom equipment companies ZTE and Huawei they can use the debt to win contracts over suppliers from India and elsewhere. Note there is a already a major controversy in the USA over the subsidies and support given to Chinese solar companies and has led to a so called solar trade war between the two . Even USA has used its EXIM Bank to provides millions of dollars in financing of solar farms which are supplied by US Solar Panel producers First Solar. Chinese companies Goldpoly are using the strong billion dollar lines to build solar projects in the Europe as well
February 27, 2012
The falling prices of solar panels has made almost impossible thought of solar electricity prices possible today. In a state auction of solar projects ,a small company Alex Green Energy bid only 14c/ KwH to win the auction. The price is lower than that seen in the Indian federal subsidy auction JNNSM. Note Rs 7/ Kwh that was bid is close to the Rs 6-7/ Kwh retail electricity prices in most cities in India.Note in the first phase of auction the lowest price was more than 50% higher at Rs 10/ kwh
February 25, 2012
India's Solar PowerIndustry is starting to see some M&A with both domestic and foreign companies buying smaller firms. While the biggest M&A story is that of Tata Power acquiring the stake in Tata BP Solar, other firms without any grounding in the energy industry are too getting in. Now a Coal Equipment and EPC company Tecpro is getting into the solar energy business by acquiring a small solar lighting and heating company Eversun.Tecpro Systemsis primarily focused on the Power Sector Space.It is a leader in the ash handling and material handling systems and is currently diversifying into becoming a turnkey provider in this segment.Like other infrastructure players it has seen amazing growth in the last 3 years at around 70%+.The growth has been fantastic both on the topline and the bottomline.The 2300 crore Order book provides some comfort over the next year’s revenues or so.The Power Sector in India particularly the Thermal Power Plants are expected to see an explosive growth period.Steel and Cement sectors are also growing strongly.With Tecpro Systems focusing on these 3 segments,it should be able to maintain a good growth trajectory in the future years as well
February 25, 2012
The Indian Solar Power Industry is starting to see some Solar M&A activity pick up as the sector starts maturing. The Indian Solar Energy Industry starting picking up pace in 2009 with the advent of the first phase of the solar federal subsidy which envisaged putting up 20 GW by 2022 (a figure which I think is too low btw) . A large number of companies entered the fray many of which were small . These companies hoped to profit from selling the licenses rather than being serious players. Many of these companies could not do so as the reverse auction process was quite competitive. A large number of companies also got started to take advantage of individual state subsidies from governments in Gujarat.
February 23, 2012
China which is the world's largest provider of solar panels made from crystalline silicon is seeing a large number of smaller polysilicon companies go bankrupt or stop production. The reason is that for many of the smaller companies the price of polysilicon is $25-30/kg while the costs are $40-50/kg .This means that the smaller companies are making massive losses with the production of each kg of polysilicon. Note Polysilicon is a commodity industry like the memory industry and goes through periodic ups and downs when prices can go much below costs. In recent years a large number of companies set up polysilicon plants to benefit from the massive growth in the solar panel demand in Europe. However a massive glut in 2011 led the prices to fall across the supply chain of silicon solar panels. Poly prices fell from a high of $100/kg to $25/kg a drop of almost 75% in one year. This has made many of the smaller poly plants in China stop production as the price is below variable costs. The bigger producers like GCL , Renesola and Daqo have lower costs at around $25-30/kg which means they are breaking even . However for smaller companies the situation is dire as massive capacity expansion by the top polysilicon producers will continue in 2012 keeping prices at around the same level.
February 18, 2012
China continues to rule the global wind energy market generating around 40% of the global demand in 2011 with 18 GW of wind turbine installations. The dominance of the Chinese is underlined from the fact that they installed 3 times more wind energy than USA which is a bigger electricity market. China also dominates in supplying wind equipment to the global market. Its companies like Sinovel, Mingyang and Goldwind are starting to win marketshare in overseas market .These companies which are trying to grow outside to escape the glut in the domestic market have won some major overseas orders.
February 16, 2012
While US Solar Installers are making Hay while the Chinese Solar Panel Companies flood the world with super cheap solar modules,Western solar manufacturers are being killed at an astounding rate.The second biggest thin film solar panel company in the US United Solar Ovonic has gone belly up.The company was fighting a losing batter as the more efficient crystalline solar panel prices went below its production cost.The company had tried to fight in a the niche of BIPV solar panel market but could not survice. After First Solar,Energy Conversion Devices seemed the mostly likely viable company in Thin Film Technology.After a few quarters of profits in 2008,the company went into the red as its flexible a-Si modules failed to cut costs as fast as others.It has been shutting factories in the US and shifting to low cost locations.