US-based Applied Materials, as well as a number of European toolmakers such as Centrotherm, Meyer Burger, Schmid and DEK-Solar, are expected to notch up record revenues in the year to March 2012, aided by the immense capacity expansion programmes undertaken by many Asian PV manufacturers over the past few years.
However, the toolmakers' flush times are sputtering to an end, with the severely oversupplied PV industry reining back hard on production.
Western
