Trina Solar Sets Second Straight Quarter Of Record Results

Leading global solar PV manufacturer Trina Solar published its second quarterly earnings Tuesday, highlighting its second straight quarter of record results.

The Chinese-based manufacturer is a global leader in PV modules, solutions, and services, and finished the second quarter of 2015 with total module shipments worth 1,231.6 MW — 20% up on Q1’15, 30.6% up on Q2’14, and well in advance of the company’s own guidance of between 1,100 MW and 1,140 MW. 1,000.7 MW of those shipments were to external entities, while the remaining 230.9 MW was to the company’s own downstream PV projects.

“We achieved our second straight quarter of record results and our strongest quarter ever for both upstream and downstream in almost all financial and operating metrics,” said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar. “We not only beat the high end of our guidance with record module shipments of 1.23 GW and project connections of 121.3 MW, we also experienced strong top-line and bottom-line growth and improved fundamentals while focusing on profitable growth.”

Trina Solar’s net revenue for the second quarter, 2015 was $722.9 million, an impressive increase of 29.5% over the first quarter of 2015, and an even more impressive 39.2% increase over the second quarter, 2014. Gross margin sat at 20.0%, and operating income was $60.7 million, with net income of $43.1 million, a phenomenal 174.8% increase from the first quarter of 2015, and a whopping 317.8% increase over the second quarter a year earlier.

“We achieved this result with a combination of cost reductions through continued improvements in supply chain management, technological development, and strategic deployment of our resources in promising and fast-growing markets,” added Mr Jifan Gao.

Unsurprisingly, Trina Solar has subsequently raised its full-year guidance for total PV module shipments from between 4.4 GW to 4.6 GW, up to somewhere between 4.9 GW and 5.1 GW, including between 700 MW and 800 MW which is expected to be shipped to Trina Solar’s own downstream projects. Specifically, Trina Solar expects to ship between 1,450 MW and 1,500 MW in the third quarter, including between 170 MW and 190 MW to its own downstream projects.