(UPDATED) First Solar has reported second-quarter 2011 net sales of US$533 million in the quarter, a decrease of US$34.5 million from the first quarter, which were a decrease of US$42.5 million from the fourth quarter of 2010. The CdTe thin-film leader noted that the sales decline was primarily due to lower average selling prices, which in turn were due to policy uncertainties in Italy, Germany and France, leading to weaker-than-expected demand.
“First Solar continued to execute in the quarter despite a challenging European market, and our 2011 outlook remains solid due to our differentiated and resilient business model,” said Rob Gillette, CEO of First Solar. “We expect stronger performance in the second half of 2011 as we build projects from our systems pipeline, develop promising new markets, execute our cost reduction roadmaps and continue to improve module efficiencies.”
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However, First Solar revised downwards its 2011 guidance across most areas. Net sales were revised down to between US$3.6 billion-US$3.7 billion, compared to previous guidance in the first quarter of between US$3.7 billion-US$3.8 billion. Operating income was tweaked to between US$900 million-$960 million, compared to US$900 million-US$970 million.
Capital expenditure was also not immune to the downward revisions. First Solar had previously guided capex in the range of US1.0 billion to US$1.1 billion in 2011. Capex is now expected to be in the range of US$800 million to US$900 million.
First Solar also said that through a combination of design, materials sourcing, and productivity improvements, its average balance of systems costs for standard ground-mounted arrays had dropped to 99 cents per watt during the quarter, down from US$1.40 per watt in Q2 2009.
