Yingli Green Energy Reports Loss On 4th Quarter Earnings

Solar panel manufacturer Yingli Green Energy, also known as Yingli Solar, reported its 2014 fourth quarter and full-year earnings on Wednesday, and it wasn’t good news, with a greater-than-expected operating loss and relatively flat shipments and revenue for the year.

Total revenue for the company in the fourth quarter was $555.5 million, down on a year previously. Total shipments reached 939.2 MW for the quarter, but the company’s operating loss was $32.2 million, representing a negative 5.8% of operating margin.

For the full year 2014, total revenue was $2,083.5 million, down again on 2013 figures, with shipments reaching 3,361.3 MW. The company’s operating loss for the full year sat at $34.7 million.

The company’s shares, which has been incurring losses for several years now, incurred heavy losses on Wednesday, dropping to below $2 a share.

Nevertheless, Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy didn’t let these negatives dampen his comments:

“We are pleased to conclude another solid year in 2014, with full year module shipments hitting a record high of 3.3 GW and full year gross margin increasing to 17.3% from 10.9% in 2013, which was mainly attributable to our continuous efforts to diversify our market presence, reduce manufacturing cost and improve our profitability.”

With over 1.6 GW of PC projects currently in the company’s pipeline, Yingli Solar “expects the global PV demand” to continue “to show healthy growth in 2015.” Yingli Solar now expects to ship between 400 and 600 MW of PV modules to its downstream projects in 2015, with a same amount completed by the end of the year.

Yingli Solar’s PV module shipment target for the full year is between 3.6 GW and 3.9 GW.