Chinese solar manufacturing giant Canadian Solar’s quarterly module shipment decreased by more than 20% but it posted a net income of US$12.4 million in the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s solar module shipments were 6.3GW in Q1 2024, down from 8.2GW in Q4. Of the total, 236MW of modules were shipped to Canadian Solar’s own utility-scale solar power projects.
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However, the company’s net income showed a quarter-on-quarter improvement in Q1 2024, increasing from a net loss of US$1.39 million to a net income of US$12.4 million. Yearly, the net income in Q1 2024 decreased by more than 85% from US$83.7 million in Q1 2023.
Net revenues in Q1 2024 decreased from US$1.7 billion in Q4 2023, representing a 22% decrease. The company said the sequential decrease primarily reflected a decline in solar module shipment volume and module average selling price (ASP), partially offset by higher battery energy storage solutions sales.
Yearly, net revenues also decreased from US$1.7 billion in Q1 2023. The company said it reflected a decline in module ASP, partially offset by higher battery energy storage system (BESS) sales and an increase in solar module shipment volume.
“In our module business, we are concentrating on profitable growth and expanding our market share in key strategic markets. Demand remains robust, and we are witnessing signs of improvement in distributed generation markets and select geographies,” said Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar.
Canadian Solar also announced the business results of its subsidiaries of Recurrent Energy and CSI Solar. As of the end of Q1 2024, Recurrent Energy had a total global solar development pipeline of 26.3GWp, including 1.5GWp under construction, 5GWp of backlog, and 19.8GWp of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines. Of the projects that are under construction, 424MWp were from North American markets, while Latin American markets accounted for 896MWp.
Meanwhile, the company had a BESS development pipeline of 55.9GWh, including 4.3GWh under construction and in backlog, and 51.6GWh of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines.
For CSI Solar, the top five markets ranked by shipments were China, the US, Pakistan, Brazil and Spain in Q1 2024. The segment also revised manufacturing capacity expansion targets of ingots, wafers, cells and modules in 2024.
For example, with an actual ingot manufacturing capacity of 20.4GW as of March 2024, Canadian Solar planned to reach a manufacturing capacity of 50.4GW. CSI Solar manufactured 24GW of wafers as of Q1 2024, the manufacturing capacity is expected to reach 50GW.
Manufacturing capacity of cells and modules will increase from 48.4GW and 58GW in Q1 2024 to 55.7GW and 61GW in Q4 2024 respectively.
Looking ahead, Canadian Solar’s expected total module shipment will be in the range of 7.5GW to 8GW, including approximately 100MW to the company’s own projects. Total BESS shipments by CSI Solar in Q2 are expected to be between 1.4GWh and 1.6GWh, including about 800MWh to the company’s own projects.
For the full year of 2024, Canadian Solar expected that its total module shipments will be in the range of 35GW and 40GW and CSI Solar’s total BESS shipments to be the range of 6GWh to 6.5GWh, including approximately 2GW and 2.5GWh respectively to its own projects. Lastly, Canadian Solar’s total revenue in 2024 is expected to be in the range of US$7.3 billion and US$8.3 billion.