Suntech reports Q3 2010 financial results

SAN FRANCISCO, USA & WUXI, CHINA: Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd has announced financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2010.

Q3 2010 highlights
* Total net revenues were $743.7 million in the third quarter of 2010, representing growth of 19 percent sequentially and 57.2 percent year-over-year.
* Total PV shipments increased 25.3 percent sequentially and 107.1 percent year-over-year.
* Gross profit margin for the core wafer to module business was 18.2 percent in the third quarter of 2010.
* Consolidated gross profit margin was 16.4 percent in the third quarter of 2010.
* GAAP net income attributable to holders of ordinary shares was $33.1 million, or $0.18 per diluted American Depository Share (ADS). Each ADS represents one ordinary share.

"The third quarter was a highly productive period for Suntech," said Dr. Zhengrong Shi, chairman and CEO. "Shipments and revenues each hit new quarterly records and we reached production capacity of 1.6GW. We are on track to achieve our goal of 1.8GW cell and module capacity by the end of this year."

"In the third quarter, we continued to diversify our sales globally and participated in high profile solar projects across Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. In Europe, we supplied a 5MW project in Thiva, which is one of the largest grid connected solar projects in Greece.

"In Asia Pacific, we were selected for phase two of a 44MW project in Thailand. And we recently opened our module manufacturing facility in Goodyear, Arizona, which will help us to service the accelerating demand in the Americas. Indicative of our rapid market penetration, we sold more product in the Americas in the third quarter of 2010 than we did in the full year 2009," Dr. Shi continued.

"We are also pleased to announce we are in the process of extending our vertical integration into the wafer segment of the solar value chain. As we expand our internal wafer manufacturing capacity, we are confident we will have an improving earnings profile as we benefit from lower wafer cost. Upstream integration is in line with Suntech's strategy to continue to reduce the cost of solar energy and stimulate greater global adoption of clean, renewable energy," said Dr. Shi.