SolarWorld CEO Frank Asbeck joined compatriot SMA Solar and US-based SunPower in warning over accelerating challenges for the world’s big solar players in the second half of 2016.

“The main reason is excess capacities on the part of Chinese manufacturers, who have built new production lines outside of China, too,” Asbeck told his shareholders in SolarWorld’s second-quarter financial report.

The SolarWorld CEO – who has led a successful campaign for fair-trade action against Chinese dumping – claimed his company can hold its own in the tough marketplace thanks to its “broad product portfolio” and high quality.

But the looming price pressures have already caused SolarWorld to dampen firm expectations earlier in the year that it would deliver a positive profit before interest and tax (Ebit) for the full-year 2016. It now says the final Ebit figure could come in anywhere between a €10m ($11.1m) loss and a €10m profit.

Asbeck’s comments came as the company confirmed preliminary Q2 figures showing shipments rose 39% to 342MW in the second quarter compared with the corresponding period last year, pushing consolidated revenue from €171m to €222m.

The final second quarter Ebit figure was €4.5m, down on the €6.6m in the preliminary figures. That left SolarWorld’s Ebit at the half year stage at a €5.2m loss, improving on the €12.2m deficit it registered at the same stage last year.

SolarWorld said it had seen “significant growth in its largest individual market the US, which made up more than half of group-wide shipments and revenue” as well as in other international markets.

The US courts were the scene of a legal setback for SolarWorld last month when a judge ordered it to pay $793m to Hemlock in a dispute over a supply contract – a sum that would be well beyond the German group’s ability to find.

SolarWorld said it will appeal the verdict and remains confident the ruling would in any case have no validity in Germany.

Asbeck added: “I am confident that we will reach an amicable agreement with Hemlock, as has been the case with all our other silicon suppliers.”