In the first half of 2017 UK ingot and wafer manufacturer PV Crystalox Solar PLC achieved revenues of €12.6 million ($14.8 million), about 64 percent lower than in the same period in 2016 (€34.7 million) despite a 17 percent increase in wafer shipments. According to the company, this decrease was mainly due to trading lower volumes of polysilicon than in H1 2016, when the Group was able to sell a significant portion of the raw material inventory it held at December 31, 2015 and to achieve a positive gross margin on trading additional quantities of polysilicon. Loss attributable to owners of the parents is €5.4 million (H1 2016: profit of €4.7 million). Group wafer shipments totaled 69 MW in H1 2017 (H1 2016: 59 MW). According to the company, the majority of the Group's wafers are used in modules for the French PV market.

As reported, PV Crystalox had advised in March 2017 that it would phase out multicrystalline silicon ingot production in the UK during 2017 and rely on the purchase of ingots from an external supplier. Ingots are currently processed into blocks in the UK and wafers produced in the German facility. The Group is now stopping block production and will instead source blocks from an external supplier. As a result all production operations in the UK will cease during Q3 2017 and the vast majority of jobs in the Group's UK trading subsidiary, Crystalox Limited, will be lost.

Work is already underway to clear one of the production buildings where the lease expires in October 2017. The other facilities are expected to be cleared by the end of Q1 2018 and negotiations are ongoing regarding surrender of those leases. The Group retains its operational wafer production capabilities in Germany and will continue its focus on the French niche low carbon footprint wafer market where it has some competitive advantage.

According to the company, current market conditions »continue to be particularly severe for multicrystalline silicon products with massive over-capacity in China depressing prices for both cells and wafers.« Higher efficiency monocrystalline silicon cells are gaining market share and are expected to become the dominant technology by 2019. »This trend is exacerbating the pressure on multicrystalline silicon pricing and indeed the PV manufacturing industry outside China faces an existential crisis.«