Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 2-Hanwha SolarOne posts 4th-qtr loss; shares down

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UPDATE 2-Hanwha SolarOne posts 4th-qtr loss; shares down Mar 15th 2012, 13:28 Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:28am EDT * Sees FY12 shipments at 1 GW, higher than 844.4 MW sold last year * Q4 loss $1.57/ADS vs profit $0.27/ADS year ago * Q4 rev fell 55 pct to $155.4 mln * Shares down 8 percent before the bell March 15 (Reuters) - Hanwha SolarOne Co posted a fourth-quarter loss as lower selling price and inventory write-downs took a toll on margins, sending the Chinese photovoltaic cell maker's shares down 8 percent before the bell. Hanwha SolarOne's fourth-quarter gross margin was negative 62 percent, compared with positive 22 percent a year ago. Solar module shipments fell 14 percent to 189.1 megawatt while average selling price almost halved to $1. Prices of polysilicon, the main raw material in the solar industry, are expected to touch $35 per kilogram in the first quarter, a company executive said on a conference call with analysts. Polysilicon prices, which have been hovering around $30 per kg on the spot market, rose amid tight supplies last year. To lower the cost of making solar products, a number of companies started in-house production. Hanwha SolarOne has said it expects to produce polysilicon in the future. The company expects photovoltaic module shipments of about 1 gigawatt this year. In 2011, it shipped 844.4 megawatt of modules. Solar companies such as JinkoSolar Holding Co, Suntech Power Holdings and Canadian Solar Inc have also forecast higher shipments for the year. South Korea's Hanwha Chemical Corp bought half of Hanwha SolarOne, formerly known as Solarfun Power Holdings Co, last year and changed its name. The company outlined capital expenditures of $100 million for the year, a steep decline from the $387.3 million it spent in 2011. Bigger peers such as First Solar, Trina Solar and Suntech have sought to reduce production costs to make the renewable power source less reliant on subsidies that make it competitive with fossil fuels. Hanwha SolarOne shares, which have shed nearly 82 percent of their value in the last year, were trading down at $1.29 premarket. They had closed at $1.36 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq. Net loss attributable to shareholders was $132.3 million, or $1.57 per American Depositary Share (ADS), compared with a profit of $56.2 million, or 27 cents per ADS, a year ago. Revenue fell 55 percent to $155.4 million. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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