SMA Solar Technology expects to see "significant sales growth" in 2022, as this year's supply chain turmoil has caused a large backlog of large solar projects to be delayed.

When SMA reported its results for the third quarter of 2021 today, it revealed that its shipments so far were 10.3GW and the third quarter shipments were 3.5GW. This is lower than the 10.7GW and 3.6GW shipments from the first quarter to the third quarter and the third quarter of 2020, respectively.

However, SMA was able to increase the profit margin during the reporting period—up by 1.7 percentage points to 7.1%—and helped raise the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to 53 million euros ($63.9 million). Net income increased by 66% year-on-year to 15.2 million euros.

Many solar manufacturers, from modules to inverters, have improved their profit margins this year after supply chain fluctuations and material and module price increases are mainly passed on to customers.

SMA has issued revised guidance for this year and warned in September that its revenue and earnings in 2021 will be lower than previous forecasts after the supply chain problems have "significantly worsened". The inverter manufacturer said today that as corporate customers focus on investment decisions, its commercial solutions division continues to lag, while sales in its home and large-scale project solutions divisions are growing.

However, project delays and postponements have always existed, and SMA CEO Jürgen Reinert warned that business performance in the fourth quarter will continue to be affected.

However, as SMA's order backlog swells, it is expected that the situation will ease in 2022. Reinert said: "The order volume is developing very well. Next year we will start with a large backlog of orders. We expect overall sales to increase substantially."

As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, SMA Solar's net cash was 169 million euros, which was lower than the 226 million euros at the end of last year. SMA attributed this to the increase in inventory due to material and component shortages leading to a spiraling price increase. The previous results showed that most of the (approximately 57 million euros of net cash expenditure) was spent in the second quarter, while the net cash expenditures in the third quarter of 2021 were only 1 million euros.

SMA reiterated its full-year sales and earnings guidance, with sales expected to be between EUR 980 million and EUR 1.03 billion, and EBITDA will be between EUR 50 million and EUR 65 million.