The seasonal market upturn which the solar industry had been anticipating to start in the second quarter, has broadly not materialised for Q-Cells as yet, the Germany-based solar cell manufacturer says.

Lower sales volumes, the postponement of a large scale project to the third quarter and the continued downward trend in solar cell prices has led, according to preliminary calculations, to a reduced revenue of around €142 million, down 37% from the first quarter. EBIT went from €15m in Q1 to €-62m.

Q-Cells has not been able to fully adjust solar wafer prices in the immediate term to the lower price level of solar cells due to existing agreements with suppliers.

From a current standpoint, it will not be possible to attain the revenue and production levels which had been anticipated for the current business year, the solar cell and wafer company says. Because of this, Q-Cells will not make new revenue and production forecasts for the current business year at the moment.

Q-Cells still has a financial reserve of approx. €520m as of 30 June 2009.