News Article
Trina Solar Q3 Results See Revenues Down 5.2% Year-on-year
Trina Solar Limited an integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, has announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2011.
Third Quarter 2011 Financial and Operating Highlights
- Solar module shipments were approximately 370 MW for the third quarter of 2011, representing a decrease of 6.6% sequentially and an increase of 27.4% year-over-year
- Net revenues were $481.9 million, a decrease of 16.8% sequentially and 5.2% year-over-year
- Gross profit was $52.0 million, a decrease of 47.1% sequentially and 67.4% year-over-year
- Gross margin was 10.8% which includes a non-cash inventory write down of $19.1 million, compared to 17.0% in the second quarter of 2011 and 31.4% in the third quarter of 2010
- Gross margin relating to the Company's in-house wafer production to module production was 18.3%
- Loss from operations was $23.5 million, compared to operating income of $32.8 million in the second quarter of 2011 and $113.0 million in the third quarter of 2010
- Operating margin was negative 4.9%, compared to 5.7% in the second quarter of 2011 and 22.2% in the third quarter of 2010
- Net loss was $31.5 million, compared to net income of $11.8 million in the second quarter of 2011 and $82.9 million in the third quarter of 2010
- Earnings per fully diluted American Depositary Share ("ADS") were negative $0.45, compared to $0.17 in the second quarter of 2011 and $1.08 in the third quarter of 2010
"We experienced a challenging third quarter as a result of significant price declines and tightened financing conditions, which affected some of our customers' large European projects," said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. "During the third quarter, we paid increasing attention to customer credit risks and in some cases regulatory risks linked to the underlying project markets, which resulted in our foregoing some sales opportunities. We also continued to maintain a strong balance sheet during this quarter."
"To best position Trina Solar going forward, we are refining our marketing and product strategies to address larger and more diversified distribution channels, in both established and emerging solar markets. These include the growing US residential leasing channel, where we recently signed a 60 MW supply agreement in the fourth quarter."
"As we focus on growth, the recent establishment of our Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Singapore will help us secure new customers in the Asia Pacific region, the Middle East and South Africa. In markets such as Australia and Southern Europe, as grid parity approaches, we believe that long-term success will ultimately depend on the effective delivery of innovative solutions based on efficient manufacturing and customer-driven value-added support services. Examples of our successful execution of this strategy include our total system cost-saving Trinamount module line and our recently launched multicrystalline-based 'Honey' technology-based module, which we believe achieved a world record output based on tests conducted by TUV Rheinland ("TUV")."
