LDK Solar’s Q1 results remain in the red

Share

LDK Solar remained deep in red ink for the first quarter of the year as its net loss grew slightly to $187.1 million compared to the first three months of 2012 while revenue plunged nearly 50% to $104.3 million year-on-year.

The company partly attributed its loss to an inventory write-down of $15.1 million, which it said was required as a result of the continuous weakness in the market price for polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules caused by industry-wide over capacity and increased market competition. The move negatively impacted first quarter gross margin and results from operations.

Gross margin was negative 57% in the period, compared to negative 65.5% in the same period last year, while operating losses reached $93.2 million, up from a $423.5 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2012 and from $135.8 million a year ago. The Chinese PV manufacturer shipped 240 MW of wafers and 31.4 MW of cells and modules in the first quarter.

The company’s total liabilities totaled $5.3 billion in the first quarter, up from $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.

"The first quarter operating environment remained challenging for the solar industry," said LDK Solar President and CEO Xingxue Tong, adding that the company was undertaking a number of initiatives to restructure the company.

LDK Solar was working closely with stakeholders and government agencies in an effort to "negotiate solutions," Tong said.

Popular content

The company is aiming to improve its cost structure by driving down production costs, tightening operating expenses and adapting its overall business to current market demands in order to better position it for long-term growth.

"While China still represents the strongest global growth opportunity, we believe that Southeast Asia, Africa, India and the U.S. are among several emerging markets with additional growth potential," Tong said.

LDK Solar is focusing on increasing its market share in these regions and recently reported a new module supply deal with a leading PV project developer in Thailand.

Looking towards the second quarter, the company management estimates revenue to reach between $100 million and $150 million, wafer shipments between 250 MW and 300 MW and cell and module shipments between 30 MW and 40 MW.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.