Yingli's Record Q4 and 2010 Solar Shipments

Yingli’s Record Q4 and 2010 Solar Shipments

Solar shipments of more than 1 GW at 32.9% GM for the year

Eric Wesoff February 18, 2011

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.

Yingli Green Energy Holding (NYSE: YGE) reported its fourth quarter and full year 2010 results this morning.

Total net revenues for the quarter were $616.1 million. PV module shipments increased by 21.6% quarter over quarter, reaching a historical high at a gross profit of $202.7 million and gross margin of 32.9%.
Total 2010 net revenues were 1,893.9 million at a gross margin of 33.2 percent
Full year PV module shipments were 1,061.6 megawatts, beating guidance of 1020 megawatts to 1040 megawatts.
Yingli will supply approximately 70 percent of the total amount of 272 megawatts in PV projects under the Golden Sun Program, sponsored by the Ministry of Finance of China. The majority of the shipments are scheduled to be delivered in the second half of 2011.
80 percent of Yingli's global sales were in Europe.

Yingli's manufacturing covers the full photovoltaic value chain, from polysilicon production through ingot casting and wafering, to PV cell production and module assembly, with a capacity of over one gigawatt per year. Two capacity expansion projects of 600 megawatts and 100 megawatts are under construction and are expected to begin production in the middle of 2011; they will increase Yingli's total nameplate capacity to 1.7 gigawatts in late 2011.

Yingli produces multi-crystalline products which have lower production costs than their mono-crystalline counterparts and the company is among the leaders in processing costs at $0.74 per watt in their previous quarter.

Yingli expects its PV module shipments to be in the range of 1,700 megawatts to 1,750 megawatts for fiscal year 2011, an increase of 60.1 percent to 64.8 percent compared to fiscal year 2010.

Aaron Chew of Hapoalim Securities writes, "As the challenging outlook for 2H10 and 2011 becomes more evident, we expect the stock to revisit its 52-week lows. We maintain our SELL rating and $9.00 price target." Lazard Capital rates it a BUY.

Currently the stock is up 5.3 percent to $13.53.