Shawn Qu
Analyst · ROTH Capital Partners. Your line is now open
Thank you, Mary and we appreciate everyone taking their time to join us today. As you are all aware, the solar industry experienced higher volatility and increased pricing pressure in the second half of the second quarter. Canadian Solar however has successfully navigated theories of volatilities in the past and we are confident in our continuous ability to do it this time. Even with the volatility we achieved our Q2 guidance for both solar module shipments and growth margin. This shipment volume reflects our global channel diversification and the strength of our billable brand. As our partners continue to turn to Canadian Solar for leading edge, high quality and reliable solar products. The gross margin reflects our ability to hold a brand premium and to manage the supply chain combined with our ongoing focus on cost control and manufacturing efficiency. Q2 revenue however, is about 5% below the guidance due to the deferral of certain projects sales that are of course lower than expected solar module ASP, resulting from China’s new solar policy affected on May 31st. So, there are certainly greater headwinds in Q2 than in recent quarters. That‘s nothing our teams has now worked through in the past. In the near-term, we will focus on maintaining our market share and protecting a reasonable profit margin. In the long-term, lower module and other hardware cost by default will make solar energy even more attractive. Our diversified business model has positioned us well to benefit from the potential higher global demand. Our confidence is also based on Canadian Solar’s industry leading technology portfolio. Canadian Solar is probably the only mainstream solar manufacturer, who has mastered Mono-PERC, Multi-PERC, and beneficial solar module technology. We had developed and mass produced P-3, which applied diamond wire-saw with black silicon, multi-crystalline, silicon wafers. Than in 2017, we successfully developed P-4 technology, which added PERC to our P-3 and led our multi-solar cell across the 20% efficiency watermark in mass production. We than successfully developed beneficial solar modules, based on the multi P-4 platform. We produced and shipped more than 100 megawatt of multi-beneficial solar modules in Q2 alone. Clearly the first one in the world, to achieve this shipment volume. We viewed our R&D track record, with additional new products introductions in Q2, to our global customers, including HiKu which we believe is the world’s first multi-silicon solar modules, reaching 400 watt. And HiKu which combined our partial and co-module technology. Separately, we started mass production of our multi-buffer modules, last month. We introduced our high power, high efficiency, high-DM based on the latest Mono-PERC technology, which offers a perfect solution for high premiums residential markets. On the energy side, we remain focused on energizing and expanding our late stage solar project pipeline, and monetizing our solar power project assets. during the quarter, we energized a total of 522 megawatt of solar power project, including 340 megawatt in China, 115 megawatt in Brazil, 56 megawatt in Japan, and 70 megawatt in Australia. With these newly energized projects, our portfolio of solar power plant, in operation, totaled 1.4 gigawatt at end of July with an estimated resale value of $1.6 billion dollar. We continue to recycle our capital into new projects that meet our investment return criteria. While focusing on fortifying our balance sheet to ensure our continued success. Our late stage project pipeline including those in constructions now stands at 2.2 gigawatts at the end of July. Now, let me comment on our guidance for Q3 2018 and a full year 2018. Recurrent net expect totaled Q3 module shipment to be in a range of approximately 1. 5 to 1.6 gigawatt including 210 megawatt of shipments to our own utility scale solar project. Revenue for the third quarter 2018 is expected to be in a range of $709 to $814 million with gross margin expected to be between 20% to 23%. Given the global market change totally in the new policy in China effective of Ma y 31, 2018 and the policy and market change in other key markets. We are revising our full year 2018 total module shipment guidance to be in a range of six to 6.2 gigawatt compared to 6.6 to 7.1 gigawatt previously. We now expect total revenue for the full year 2018 to be in a range of four to 4.2 billion compared to 4.4 to 4.6 billion previously. This revision is in line with the broader industry change and mainly reflects the expected reduction of shipments volume to the Chinese market in the second half of the year and lower module ASP. We have strategically reduced our 2018 manufacturing capacity expansion plan to reflect the near-term market environment or continue to monitor the demand level and adjust our plan. Longer term, we remain confident that global demand for solar powered product will continue to increase in light of solar energy’s compelling lower cost of ownership and ability to accommodate locations underserved by other grid power options. Let me now turn the call over to our CFO, Huifeng Chang for a more detailed review of our results for the second quarter. Huifeng please go ahead.