ReneSola posts surprise loss as shipments plunge; shares slide
(Reuters) - Chinese solar panel maker ReneSola Ltd reported a surprise quarterly loss as shipments fell by more than a fifth, sending the company's shares down more than 12 percent.
The company said shipments in the July-September quarter declined 22 percent as some of its customers, particularly in Europe, delayed contracts.
Solar panel makers have been hit by anti-dumping duties and a plunge in government subsidies in Europe. The region's share of the global solar demand is estimated to shrink to 35 percent by 2018 from 59 percent in 2013.
ReneSola's peers such as Trina Solar Ltd and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd also cut their shipment forecasts this week as their focus on lower-priced markets such as China was expected to hit margins.
ReneSola, which also faces anti-dumping duties in the United States, said in August it would use contract manufacturers across the globe to continue selling panels in the higher-priced U.S. markets.
ReneSola's total solar products shipments, that includes solar modules and wafers, fell to 663.8 megawatts (MW) from 851 MW, while sales declined 11 percent in the third quarter.
The company said it expects to ship 460-480 megawatts (MW) of solar modules in the fourth quarter, compared with the 462.2 MW it shipped in the third.
The company, which recorded an assets purchase charge of $202.8 million (128 million pounds) last year, said net loss attributable to shareholders was $11.7 million, or 12 cents per American Depository Share.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 5 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The company's revenue fell to $372.5 million from $419.3 million a year earlier.
Gross margin, however, rose to 15.3 percent from 8.7 percent.
ReneSola's shares were trading at $1.87 premarket on Wednesday. Up to Tuesday's close, the stock had fallen 52 percent to $2.12 in the past 12 months on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Anet Josline Pinto and Shubhankar Chakravorty in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
