Trina Doubles Warranty in Search of Sales 天合光能：延长产品质保年限以提振销售

As the solar industry goes through one of its worst-ever downturns with no end in sight, Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) is trying a new approach to try and bolster flagging sales by doubling the usual warranty period for its panels to 10 years from the current industry standard off 5. (company announcement) Trina is also offering other performance guarantees to try and boost its business, in a sector which has seen prices fall steadily in the last six months due to weak global demand as interest in this once promising sector dims with the fading of the global financial crisis. This kind of extended warranty is probably not a bad idea from a marketing perspective, and presumably won’t add much cost to Trina since most of its products are probably already solid enough that buyers wouldn’t need to ever actually exercise such warranties. So perhaps it could steal a sale or two from a rival, assuming others don’t follow suit with similar warranties. But at the end of the day, the only thing that will really help Trina, or any other solar panel makers for that matter, is a return in demand for installing new solar energy, which doesn’t look set to happen anytime soon. We saw an interesting move last week as a couple of solar panel makers announced plans to build their own solar plant to create more demand for their products (previous post), and Beijing may also be considering a boost in its domestic plans for solar installation (previous post), which could also help the sector. But until demand really improves on a sustained basis — which doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon, Trina and its rivals will have to battle with each other for steadily shrinking demand in this once-promising sector.

Bottom line: Trina Solar’s introduction of new extended warranties may help to steal a sale or two from a rival, but won’t make any major contributions to its top or bottom lines.

太阳能行业正在经历最严重的衰退期之一，何时走出来似乎还遥遥无期。在此整体行业背景下，天合光能<TSL.N>正在尝试新的策略来提振销售：将其太阳能电池板的质量保证年限从目前行业标准5年延长至10年。天合光能还在提供其他质保来尽力提振业务。从营销角度讲，延长质保期限大概不是坏事，而且应该不至于给公司带来太多额外成本负担，因其多数产品质量大概非常过硬，买家实际上无需行使这些质保权利。因此，假设同行没有类似举动，天合光能或许能从对手那里夺过一点销售份额。但最终，无论对天合光能还是其他太阳能厂商而言，真正能帮得上忙的还是市场对新装太阳能需求的回归，但这一幕似乎短期内难以实现。

一句话：天合光能延长质保或许能从竞争对手那里夺取一点市场份额，但对於公司业绩难有重大贡献。

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