Trina Solar announces Q1 2013 results

CHINA: Trina Solar Ltd (TSL) announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2013.

Q1 2013 financial and operating highlights
* Solar module shipments were approximately 393 MW during the first quarter of 2013, representing a sequential decrease of 5.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012
* Net revenues were $260.2 million, a decrease of 14 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.
* Gross profit was $4.4 million, a decrease of 21.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.
* Gross margin was 1.7 percent, compared to 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
* The company had an accounts receivables provision reversal of $11.1 million in the first quarter of 2013.
* Operating loss was $40.1 million, compared to $70.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.
* Operating margin was negative 15.4 percent, compared to negative 23.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
* The company had a foreign currency exchange loss of $19 million, net of changes in the fair value of derivative instruments.
* Net loss was $63.7 million, compared to a net loss of $87.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.
* Loss per fully diluted American Depositary Share ("ADS" and each ADS represents 50 of the company's ordinary shares) was $0.90, compared to $1.23 in the fourth quarter of 2012.

"While the average selling price ("ASP") of modules continued to decline in the first quarter due to the lingering supply-demand imbalance in the global PV industry, the rate of decline has slowed from previous quarters," said Jifan Gao, chairman and CEO of Trina Solar.

"In this environment, we continue to focus on improving operational efficiency and exercising financial discipline. In the first quarter, the reductions in non-silicon costs we achieved outweighed the fall in ASP, and we also collected a sizeable amount of overdue accounts receivables. These efforts enable us to maintain strong liquidity and a robust balance sheet, making us better positioned to capture future growth opportunities.

"As previously announced, we completed several restructuring and streamlining initiatives in the second half of 2012 and we saw sustained improvements in our general and administrative expenses in the first quarter of 2013. We will continue to strictly control operating costs while maintaining our product quality and service capabilities. In terms of revenues, we achieved strong sequential shipment growth in Japan and India, two of the most important emerging markets for the PV industry.

"In Europe, we worked to retain quality customers and were also able to diversify our customer base. Trina Solar remains committed to continuing to serve our customers and business partners in Europe as the EU's preliminary determination on antidumping and countervailing duty tariffs against Chinese solar products approaches.

"At the beginning of the year, we announced that the Company had been awarded the right to develop a 50 MW solar project in Gansu province, China. We began construction on the project during the end of the first quarter and expect to connect the project to the power grid and begin limited production by the end of the third quarter of 2013.

"For our downstream systems business, we remain committed to focusing on R&D and delivering innovative products and solutions to lower installation costs, while enhancing the efficiencies and ease-of-use of solar energy."