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 June 30, 2012.
The Company estimates its solar module shipments in the second quarter of 2012 to be between 390 MW to 420 MW, compared to the Company's previous guidance of 500 MW to 520 MW for the reasons discussed below. Additionally, for the second quarter of 2012, the Company estimates that overall gross margin, including the impact of a provision for potential countervailing and anti-dumping duties and a non-cash inventory write-down in the range of $26 million to $28 million, to be 7.0% to 9.0%, compared to the Company's previous guidance of approximately 10%.
The Company further expects that its operating expenses in the second quarter of 2012 will be impacted by:
A receivables provision between $45 million to $48 million primarily for certain customers' accounts receivables; and
A foreign currency exchange loss between $22 million to $23 million, which was net of changes in fair value of derivative instruments.
The Company will confirm or revise its previous shipment guidance of between 2.0 to 2.1 GW for the full year 2012 during its second quarter 2012 earnings conference call.
"An overcapacity-induced deflationary pricing environment caused the shortfall in gross margin," said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. "Shipment volume fell short of our targets as US market uncertainty on the preliminary impact of the tariff resulted in stagnant demand in North America, and the timing of several large projects in China was pushed to the second half of 2012. Amidst these market conditions, we strived to maintain reasonable gross profits."
"The receivables provision results largely from the overdue balances for certain customers," said Mr. Terry Wang, CFO of Trina Solar. "Meanwhile, the Company is making a strong effort to collect payments from these customers."
As these selected estimated results are subject to the finalization of the Company's financial closing procedures, the Company's actual results may differ from its current estimates.