Yingli Q2: Solar Revenue and Margin Up, Losses Continue, Pricing Stabilizes

2013 guidance held steady at 3.2 to 3.3 gigawatts for the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer

Eric Wesoff August 30, 2013

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

When Yingli Green (YGE) announces its financials, it's a solar bellwether.

As the world's largest crystalline silicon solar panel manufacturer, Yingli sent out signs of market stabilization in its just-announced second-quarter results. As we reported earlier this week, Trina Solar's CEO also sees the market as starting to stabilize. Canadian Solar ranks among the top Chinese c-Si firms, as well.

First, the firm held steady on its 3.2- to 3.3-gigawatt shipment guidance, about a 40 percent jump over last year and a significant chunk of the 34-gigawatt global solar market that GTM Research forecasts for 2013.

Next, the world's largest solar panel builder recorded second-quarter 2013 revenue of $550.4 million, up 23.6 percent from last quarter. Gross margin was 11.8 percent, up from 4.1 percent in the previous quarter. The gross margin for PV module sales was 12.5 percent. Net loss was $52.3 million in the second quarter of 2013, compared to approximately $100 million in the previous quarter.

Liansheng Miao, CEO of Yingli, attributed quarterly growth to "robust demand from China and the U.S. associated with the traditional peak seasons and the accelerated construction of utility-scale projects. Combined with the continuously increasing selling prices and constant reduction of manufacturing cost, we managed to increase our gross margin to 11.8 percent."

Yingli also hit the 1-gigawatt mark for North American shipments across more than 30,000 projects.

The CEO pointed the solar industry toward China and the U.S., saying, "Supported by a series of favorable policies issued recently, the China market is developing toward a more sound and steady direction of PV applications. We will take full advantage of our current leadership in China to extend our business downstream. The demand in the U.S. remains strong across all segments and geographies since earlier this year, and we expect to double our sales to the utility segment in 2013 while continuing to solidify our position as a leading PV module supplier to the distributed generation segment."

Data from GTM Research