Canadian Solar Reports Earnings

Canadian-Chinese solar company Canadian Solar Inc. (CSI) announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2016. Net revenue was $657.3 million, down 18.4% from $805.9 million in the second quarter of 2016 and 22.7% from $849.8 million in the third quarter of 2015. Net income attributable to Canadian Solar was $15.6 million compared to net income of $40.4 million in the second quarter of 2016, and net income of $30.4 million in the third quarter of 2015. Total solar module shipments were 1,185 MW, of which 1,161 MW was recognized in revenue, compared to 1,290 MW recognized in revenue in the second quarter of 2016, and third quarter guidance in the range of 1,200 MW to 1,300 MW. »Our solar module shipments and revenue came in at the low end of our guidance, due to the dislocation of the global solar market during the quarter and the quarter-end logistic disruption caused by the bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping in September,« said Shawn Qu, Canadian Solar´s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. For the fourth quarter of 2016, the company expects total solar module shipments to be in the range of approximately 1.4 GW to 1.5 GW. Total revenue is expected to be in the range of $600 million to $750 million. The shipment volume in the fourth quarter is impacted by the availability of the company's solar module manufacturing capacities. According to Canadian Solar, the company »is overbooked for the current quarter and fully booked for the first quarter of 2017. As a result, the company has to use third party solar modules for some of its own projects, in order to satisfy the demand from its solar module customers.« The gross margin in the quarter is impacted by the loss-of-service of the company's 1 GW solar cell factory in Funning damaged by a tornado in June and the delay in construction of the company's 850 MW new cell factory in Southeast Asia. The company expects to bring the Funning cell factory partially back in service at the end of the year and fully back in service by June 2017. Meanwhile, the company expects to start production on its new cell factory in Southeast Asia in the first quarter of 2017. For the full year 2016, Canadian Solar expects its guidance for total module shipments to be in the range of approximately 5.073 GW to 5.173 GW, compared to 5.4 GW to 5.5 GW as previously guided. Management expects its revenue under US GAAP for the full year 2016 to be in the range of $2.78 billion to $2.94 billion, compared to $3.0 billion to $3.2 billion as previously expected. © PHOTON