Canadian Solar Inc (NASDAQ:CSIQ) today reported achieving solid financial performance in the second quarter of 2022, with some key metrics even exceeding expectations, and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
"We achieved strong results in the second quarter of 2022, with solar module shipments, revenue and gross margin all at or exceeding the high end of prior guidance,” said Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, and added that the April-June period will likely remain the most successful for the company this year due to the timing of project sales and battery storage shipments.
Canadian Solar is a photovoltaic (PV) modules manufacturer and solar project developer that operates through two business segments, namely CSI Solar (solar module production and total system solutions) and Global Energy (global project development activities). The former is in the process of being carved out into CSI Solar Co Ltd in order to be listed. According to Canadian Solar’s head, this process remains on track and currently awaits registration with the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
In the quarter, total module shipments recognised as revenues increased by 37% on the year to 5.06 GW, including 126 MW shipped to the company's own utility-scale solar power projects. This improvement, together with higher project sales, higher average selling price and significant growth in the battery storage solutions business, helped Canadian Solar boost its net revenues by 62% year-on-year and 85% sequentially to USD 2.31 billion (EUR 2.27bn). For comparison, the company previously guided for 4.9 GW-5.1 GW of solar module shipments and USD 2.2 billion-2.3 billion in revenue.
The gross margin also surpassed the guidance range of 14.5-15.5% and reached 16%.
“We were able to support the accelerated growth rate and reduce the impact of inflation due to our prior strategic decision to increase inventory during the first quarter,” noted Huifeng Chang, Senior VP and CFO.
Even though total operating expenses jumped to USD 255 million from USD 158 million a year earlier, the company’s attributable net profit surged to USD 74 million from USD 11 million in the second quarter of 2021.
For the third quarter of the year, Canadian Solar sees total revenues to be between USD 2 billion and USD 2.1 billion, gross margin to range from 15% to 16.5%, and total module shipments recognised as revenues to be in the 6 GW-6.2 GW range, including 140 MW for own projects.
For the full year, the company now forecasts total revenue of USD 7.5 billion to USD 8 billion compared to a previous guidance range of USD 7 billion-7.5 billion. The full-year volume targets for both segments remain unchanged.
Chief executive Qu said further he anticipates continued solar module volume growth through the remainder of the year and profitability to remain healthy, “driven by continued manufacturing processing cost reductions and lower logistics costs, partially offset by higher polysilicon prices.”
As of end-June 2022, the company's total project pipeline amounted to 26.2 GWp, including 1.3 GWp under construction, 3.9 GWp of backlog and 21 GWp of projects in advanced and early-stage pipelines.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.983)
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Rooftop solar installation using Canadian Solar modules. Source: Canadian Solar.
