Yingli Solar Falls on Lower 2014 Shipments; Loss Narrows

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., the
largest solar-panel maker, fell after cutting its shipment
forecast for 2014 by about 10 percent as it seeks profitable
growth. The net loss nearly halved from a year earlier.

The company expects to ship 3.3 gigawatts to 3.35 gigawatts
of panels this year, compared with forecasts of 3.6 to 3.8
gigawatts in August and as much as 4.2 gigawatts previously, it
said in a statement today.

Yingli’s American depository receipts dropped 5 percent to
$2.84 at 10:28 a.m. in New York, after earlier falling 6.4
percent, the most intraday since Oct. 22. Each ADR is worth one
ordinary share.

Baoding, China-based Yingli, which forecast a return to
profit as early as the second quarter, reported its 13th
straight net loss. After focusing on boosting market share, the
company said it’s now seeking a balance between shipment volume
and profits.

The strategy will enable Trina Solar Ltd. to leapfrog over
Yingli and become the world’s largest panel maker this year in
terms of shipments, with about 3.6 gigawatts. Canadian Solar
Inc., the third-largest panel maker, raised its shipment
forecast this month and is profitable, like Trina.

Third-quarter revenue of $551.5 million compared with the
$645.4 million average estimate of five analysts surveyed by
Bloomberg. The net loss was $20 million. The company reported
operating profit of $32.5 million, its first since 2011.

Lower Margins

The company will see gross margins “slightly decreased”
in the current quarter from 20.9 percent in the third quarter on
higher panel sales in China where average prices are lower, Wang Yiyu, Yingli’s chief financial officer, said on a call today
with analysts.

Yingli shipped 903 megawatts of panels in the third
quarter, driven by strong demand from China and Japan. It
expects to complete about 400 megawatts of solar parks by the
end of the year.

The company also won an order to supply modules with 72
megawatts of capacity for projects in the U.K. Yingli will
deliver the panels to Solarcentury Holdings Ltd. by the end of
the year, the company said today in a statement. Terms weren’t
disclosed.

The modules will be used in “projects across the U.K.”
and produce enough electricity to power almost 22,000 homes.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Marc Roca in London at
mroca6@bloomberg.net;
Ehren Goossens in New York at
egoossens1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Jim Efstathiou Jr., Robin Saponar

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