Canadian Solar’s Q3 Results Align With The Rest Of The Struggling Solar Industry

Shipments and revenues were significantly off as Ontario-based solar company Canadian Solar (CSIQ :NYSE) experienced the same problems as the majority of its industry bedfellows.

Solar module shipments for Q3 were 384 megawatts (MW), a 7 percent decline from the 412 MW shipped in the previous quarter but an 8 percent increase from the same quarter in the previous year.

And with pricing of solar modules taking a beating, revenues faired worse as Canadian Solar reported net revenue of $326 million, a 6 percent drop from $348.2 million in the previous quarter but a 35 percent drop from the $499.6 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Helping Q3 revenues was the sale of a utility-scale power plant for $48.4 million.

Not helping matters was Canadian Solar’s lowering of year-end guidance from 1.8 gigawatts (GW) to 2 GW of panels to 1.5 GW to 1.6 GW.

Canadian Solar said they were not under pressure to sell panels in this lackluster market but their long-term debt increased by $88 million during Q3 2012.

Instead of increasing the flood of solar panels on the market, Canadian Solar seems to believe their utility-scale project pipeline will be their savior and ultimately differentiate themselves from their competitors. The company recently finished two projects and expects to recognize the revenue from them in Q1 2013 and has several other projects that will have recognized revenue during 2013.

Unsurprisingly, shares of Canadian Solar were down 13.14 percent in afternoon trading.