First Solar off track; sales down by nearly $500 million from previous quarter

Jim Hughes, CEO of First Solar

First Solar has reported net sales of $768 million for the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2013, a decrease of $497 million from the third quarter of 2013.

Profit declined by 58 percent in the fourth quarter as the revenue slumped from the utility-scale power plants from Southwest in the U.S.

The company had reported $1.08 billion in sales during the fourth quarter of 2012, mainly driven by the 550 MW Topaz project. Revenue for third quarter exceeded that as the company realized half the revenue from Desert Sunlight, another 550 MW plant.

Of late, First Solar is not selling any big projects. Analysts believe utility-scale projects are becoming limited, and First Solar’s results indicate the impending crisis big players might face due to the lowering demand for big-scale projects.

Jim Hughes, CEO of First Solar

The fourth quarter of 2013 was also impacted by pre-tax restructuring and asset impairment charges of $24.9 million primarily related to an additional write-down, due to a change in marketing strategy, in the value of our idle Vietnam facility, First Solar said.

For the first quarter of 2015, First Solar expects net sales to be between $800 and $900 million and EPS of $ 0.50 to $ 0.60 per fully diluted share.

“The fourth quarter and full-year 2013 shows our Company’s continued progress in achieving the strategic objectives we outlined during our Analyst Day event in April,” said Jim Hughes, CEO of First Solar.

First Solar has added 1.7 GW of solar projects during 2013, against the 1.6 GW of panels it shipped, the company said.

The company has set a new world record of CdTe cell efficiency at 20.4 percent and reduced the average module manufacturing costs on its best plant by 17 percent from $0.64 per watt in the fourth quarter of 2012 to $0.53 per watt in the fourth quarter of 2013.

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