Trina: Sequential declines seen, but YoY figures up; capacity expansion announced

Share

Having shipped around 351 megawatts (MW) of modules in the fourth quarter of 2010, Trina experienced a decline of 8.7 percent in the first quarter of 2011. However, at 320 MW, shipments were up a significant 66.4 percent on the first quarter of last year. The uncertainty surrounding Italy’s solar incentives were cited as the main reason for the sequential decline.

In terms of second quarter photovoltaic shipments, Trina is optimistic, saying that it expects to hit between 430 and 450 MW. For the full year, the company predicts total module shipments to be between 1.75 and 1.80 gigawatts (GW).

It says that to meet expected demand for its modules, it hopes to increase its annualized in-house ingot and wafer production capacity from 750 MW to approximately 1.2 GW, and photovoltaic cell and module production capacity from around 1.6 GW to roughly 1.9 GW in the second half of 2011, based on actual manufacturing yield.

Meanwhile, at USD$550.9 million, the company’s net revenues experienced a sequential decline of 14.2 percent, but saw a year on year increase of 63.5 percent.

Net income suffered a major fall from the fourth quarter of last year, having gone from $145.3 million to $47.7 million. This, says the company was due to a net foreign currency exchange loss of $24.1 million. Net income was slightly up, though, from the $44.5 million seen in the first quarter of last year.

Gross profit, on the other hand, fell 25 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, to hit $151.3 million. This did, however, represent a YoY increase of 45.1 percent. Gross margin experienced both a sequential and YoY loss, meanwhile, having fallen from 30.9 percent and 31.4 percent in the first and fourth quarters of last year to 27.5 percent.

In terms of operating income, Trina achieved $84.5 million. This is down from the $145.1 million achieved in the fourth quarter of 2010, but up from the $76 million in the first quarter of last year. Operating margin took a significant dent, having decreased from 22.6 percent in both the first and fourth quarters of 2010.

"Amidst a challenging macro environment and winter season conditions, we maintained relatively strong shipment volumes in the first quarter," commented Jifan Gao, chairman and CEO of Trina Solar.

He continued: "Despite decreased sequential demand linked to Italy's solar regulatory revisions, we realized notable market share gains in Germany, the rest of Europe and on a global basis. This included high-profile customer additions in Europe, North America and Asia (…)"

Looking ahead

In addition to its announced capacity expansions in the second quarter of the year, Trina expects its in-house wafer production to be in the mid 20s in percentage terms, while its overall gross margin should be in the low 20s in percentage terms.

Supply agreement

In other news, Trina Solar (Germany) GmbH has signed a 130 MW photovoltaic module agreement with Mohring Energie GmbH for an undisclosed financial sum.

Under the terms, Trina is expected to deliver the modules in the second and third quarters of this year. The modules will reportedly be utilized for several projects, including one of Europe's largest photovoltaic plant installations in 2011. Initial shipments have already commenced.

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.

Popular content

U.S. startup offers meter socket adapter that simplifies solar, battery, EV charging connection

04 December 2024 ConnectDER has secured $35 million in Series D funding to support its meter socket adapter (MSA) business, which integrates solar, storage, EV chargin...

Share

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.