Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) ("Trina Solar" or the "Company"), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, announced the following updates to its previous guidance made for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.
The Company estimates its solar module shipments in the third quarter of 2011 to be in the range of 372 MW to 375 MW, compared to the Company's previous guidance of 480 MW to 520 MW for the reasons discussed below. Additionally, for the third quarter of 2011, the Company estimates:
- Gross margin relating to its in-house wafer production and module production to be in the range of 18% to 19%, in line with the Company's previous guidance of high teens in percentage terms; and
- Overall gross margin to be in the range of 10% to 11%, which includes a non-cash inventory write down of approximately $19 million, compared to the Company's previous guidance of mid to high teens in percentage terms.
"A deflationary pricing environment impacted by challenging financing conditions for some of our customer's European projects resulted in the shortfall of our targeted shipment volumes," said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. "At the same time, we strived to maintain reasonable gross profits amidst such market conditions."
"Despite continued challenges in our traditional markets, we believe our efforts to capture or expand business in new and existing customer channels will result in significant orders for the year 2012. Specifically, we are encouraged by the prospects of demand growth in emerging PV markets within the Americas, Asia and Africa. Additionally, we have improved, and will continue to improve, our leading manufacturing efficiencies and cost structure through, among other things, renegotiations of some of our polysilicon and other key materials agreements to position us favorably going forward."
Based on its demand outlook for the second half of 2011, the Company has revised its outlook for the full year 2011 PV module shipments to approximately 1.4 GW, compared to the Company's previous guidance of between 1.75 GW to 1.8 GW.
As these selected estimated results are subject to finalization of the Company's financial closing procedures, the Company's actual results may differ from its current estimates.
The Company will review its third quarter 2011 results via conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET on November 21, 2011.
