Search sponsor
Search sponsor
Yingli Green Energy saw its revenues dip slightly but its operating and net income rise sharply during the Chinese company’s first quarter ended March 31. The holder of the Yingli Solar brand also reached a record 33.3% gross margin for the period, which it attributed to the “continuous decline in the blended cost of polysilicon, decreasing polysilicon usage per watt, and continuous reduction in nonpolysilicon cost.”
Module shipments remained stable, while capacity utilization reached 130% of Yingli’s 600MW nameplate solar manufacturing capacity, a milestone achieved through improved operational and cell efficiencies, according to the company. Yingli also reaffirmed its FY2010 module shipment target range: 950MW-1GW.
Total net revenues were RMB2,449.9 million (US$358.9 million) in the first quarter, a slight decrease of 3.2% from RMB2,530.9 million in Q42009.
Operating income was RMB535.9 million (US$78.5 million), a substantial increase from an operating loss of RMB34.4 million in Q42009.
On an adjusted non-GAAP basis and, if the company excludes the foreign currency exchange loss, net income was RMB415.9 million (US$60.9 million) in the first quarter, compared to a net income of RMB124.1 million in Q42009.
"We are pleased to announce that our first-quarter gross margin reached a record high of 33.3%, as we continued to focus on balancing profitability with market-share expansion,” stated Liansheng Miao, Yingli Green’s chairman/CEO. “Driving this performance, our PV module shipment volume grew significantly year-over-year and remained stable quarter-over-quarter, despite seasonality.
“We attribute these achievements primarily to Yingli's industry-leading brand recognition and cost advantage, and our vigorous sales and marketing efforts, including our sponsorship of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, which has helped us diversify our customer portfolio across different regions.
"We achieved close to 130% capacity utilization for our existing 600MW capacity in the first quarter through our long-term efforts to improve operating efficiency and cell conversion efficiency, while remaining focused on our strategic capacity expansion plans to satisfy unmet demand across key markets,” he continued.
“We now expect to bring the 300MW Panda monocrystalline silicon-based production capacity at our Baoding headquarters and the 100MW multicrystalline silicon-based production capacity in Hainan Province online in the third quarter of this year,” he said.
Miao also noted that Yingli’s new Panda module will be introduced at the Intersolar show in Munich next month, and that the company’s captive polysilicon plant, Fine Silicon, is in the final stage of the segment trial process and should begin fully integrated production in mid-2010 as originally scheduled.
