Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

Trina announces revised Q3 guidance

Trina Solar is also suffering from the shaky solar market conditions. As such, it has revised its full year photovoltaic module shipment downwards.

Jifan Gao, Trina Solar chairman and CEO.

Flickr/World Economic Forum

The Chinese module manufacturer is estimating that its shipments for the third quarter (Q3) of 2011 will be in the region of between 372 and 375 megawatts (MW), compared to between 480 and 520 MW. The reason cited was the "deflationary" pricing environment and "challenging" financial conditions.

Meanwhile, Trina estimates that its gross margin will fall below expectations, at between 10 and 11 percent, instead of previous predictions that it would hit the high teens. This margin includes a includes a non-cash inventory write down of approximately $19 million.

"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," explained Jifan Gao, chairman and CEO.

He added, however, that there is light at the end of the tunnel, with predictions that next year will see "significant" new orders secured. Specifically, he views the Americas, Asia and Africa as growth markets.

"Additionally," he said, "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."

Adjusting to the market conditions, Trina has revised its full year 2011 outlook downwards. As such, instead of shipping between  1.75 and 1.8 gigawatts (GW) the company expects to ship around 1,4 GW.

A conference call will be held on November 21 to discuss the company’s Q3 2011.