Daqo's Q1 profit balloons with record-high sales volume

Author: University of Salford Press Office.

Chinese polysilicon maker Daqo New Energy Corp (NYSE:DQ) posted a 403% year-on-year surge in attributable net profit to USD 33.2 million (EUR 30m) in the first quarter of 2020 thanks to an expanding gross margin and increasing sales volume.

In what CEO Longgen Zhang described as “an outstanding quarter with excellent financial and operational results,” the company produced and sold a record-high volume of 19,777 tonnes and 19,101 tonnes of polysilicon, respectively.

As a result, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from continuing operations jumped to USD 63.1 million from USD 19.9 million.

The table below gives more details on Daqo’s Q1 financial performance, compared with figures from the first and fourth quarters of 2019.

Figures in USD million, unless otherwise noted	Q1 2020	Q4 2019	Q1 2019
Revenues	168.8	118.9	81.2
Gross profit	56.6	35.1	18.3
Gross margin (%)	33.5%	29.5%	22.6%
Operating profit	45.8	30.1	9.1
Net income attributable to shareholders	33.2	20.1	6.6
Adj. net income attributable to shareholders	37.7	24.5	11.1
EBITDA from continuing operations	63.1	45.4	19.9

Zhang noted that the COVID-19 crisis created short-term market uncertainty and volatility across the solar photovoltaic (PV) sector during the second quarter but expressed confidence that the long-term solar PV growth prospects remain intact.

"We are currently conducting scheduled annual maintenance for our Xinjiang facilities. As such, we expect to produce 15,500 to 16,500 MT of polysilicon during the second quarter. Annual production volume for 2020 is expected to be 73,000 to 75,000 MT. We expect to see global solar markets recover as the impact from COVID-19 fades over the next two or three months,” Zhang stated.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.909)

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