Trina Solar posts record shipments in 2Q: cost-per-watt US$1.10

Strong demand from new and existing markets saw Trina Solar post record module shipments in the second quarter and guided higher shipments for the full year as production capacity expansions are ahead of schedule. Trina Solar expects to expand its annualized cell and module production capacity to reach up to 950 MW by the end of August 2010, compared to previous plans to reach this target by the end of the year.

Lower polysilicon prices, increased manufacturing scale and manufacturing line optimization enabled Trina Solar to reduce its manufacturing cost-per-watt to US$1.10, down from US$1.15 in the first quarter of 2010.

Trina Solar noted that non-silicon manufacturing cost applicable to its in-house wafer production to module production was approximately US$0.74 per watt, a sequential reduction of US$0.02. By the year end of 2010, the Company expects this to reach approximately US$0.70. This will be achieved through the continuation of technology and manufacturing process improvements, including supply chain and logistics management initiatives which are currently under testing or development, the company said.

With strong demand already seen for 2011, Trina Solar expects to ramp capacities of ingot and wafer as well as PV cell and module production capacity to approximately 1.0 GW and 1.5 GW respectively.

Trina Solar reported net revenue in the second quarter of US$370.8 million, an increase of 10.1% sequentially and an increase of 147.2% year- over-year. Net margin was 10.4% in the second quarter of 2010, compared to 13.2% in the first quarter of 2010 and 12.4% in the second quarter of 2009.

Total shipments were 222.8MW in the quarter, compared to previous guidance of 200 MW to 205MW, versus 192.6MW in the first quarter of 2010 and 63.9MW in the second quarter of 2009.

"Our high quality products, well-recognized brand and customer loyalties allowed us to expand shipments to an increasing number of geographical end-markets and PV user segments," commented Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar."In addition to growing our business in Australia and Southeast Asia, we had notable successes in the United States. This included signing a landmark supply agreement with Southern California Edison to participate in their California Solar Program, a milestone utility-owned PV generation project in the United States."

"We see increasing evidence that strong demand for our PV products will extend well into 2011, and we are currently looking into how best to manage capacity expansion to capture increasing global market opportunities," added Gao.

Trina Solar guided shipments of between 250MW to 260MW of PV modules for the third quarter of 2010.