Yingli reduces losses despite Y-o-Y drop in revenue and shipments for 2016

The struggling Chinese module maker was able to reduce its losses in fiscal 2016. Revenue and shipments for last year, however, were down due to lower ASPs and lower utilization rate of production capacity.

April 13, 2017 Emiliano Bellini

Yingli Green Energy

Chinese solar manufacturer Yingli Green Energy has published its financial figures for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2016.

Total revenue for 2016 reached 8,376.1 million CNY ($ 1.2 billion), down slightly from 9,965.8 million CNY a year earlier. The company said this revenue drop was mainly due to lower ASPs and to a shipment reduction resulting from a “lower utilization rate of production capacity caused by tight cash flow starting from the middle of 2015”.

Operating loss for 2016 was 1,625.8 million CNY ($234.2 million), a considerable improvement over the loss of 4,228.0 million CNY the company registered in 2015. Ebitda loss also improved significantly year-on-year from 3,020.3 million CNY in 2015 to 474.8 million (US$68.4 million) last year. Net loss for last year was 2,059.9 million CNY ($296.6 million). This compares to a broader loss of 5,898.8 million CNY it posted in 2015.

Total shipments for last year reached 2,170.4 MW. This, the company said, is in line with its previous forecast of 2.1 GW to 2.2 GW. For comparison, Yingli shipped 3,101 MW in 2014 to 2,382 MW in 2015.

As for the fourth quarter of last year, Yingli said its revenue and shipments reached 2,041.4 million CNY ($294.0 million) and 635.1 MW, respectively. Turnover and shipments for the same period of the previous year were 2,110.0 million CNY ($ 306.4 million) and 504.5 MW. Quarterly shipments, however, more than doubled compared to the third quarter of last year, when Yingli sold 365.3 MW. The company said this increase in sales was due to growing demand from Japan and China.

“Geographically,” said Yingli CEO Liansheng Miao, “China and Japan continued to see strong demands in the quarter and remained as the two largest markets for us. Our PV module shipments to China in the fourth quarter more than doubled compared to previous quarter and accounted for 75% of our total PV module shipments in the quarter. Our PV module shipments to Japan in the fourth quarter increased by 11% compared to the third quarter and accounted for 20% of our total shipments in the quarter.”

Net loss for the latest quarter was 1,862.5 million CNY ($270.5 million), down from 1,485.6 million CNY in the fourth quarter of 2015. Loss from operations also widened year-on-year from 1,120.2 million CNY to 1,743.6 million CNY ($253.2 million), as well as the Ebidta loss, which grew from 824.4 million in the last quarter of 2015 to 1,469.2 million CNY ($213.3 million) in the latest quarter.

The company had an available liquidity of 506.6 million CNY ($73.0 million) as of the end of December 2016. Its total deficit, however, was 15.4 billion CNY ($2.2 billion) and its deficit in working capital reached 7.4 billion CNY ($1.1 billion). This, the company stressed, raises substantial doubt about the its ability to continue as a going concern. In early March, the company announced the creation of a committee with the ultimate of aim of resolving debt repayment issues faced by its principal subsidiaries.

As of April 13, Yingli’s subsidiaries had medium-term notes of 2,057.0 million CNY ($298.7 million) outstanding. The company added that it has not reached any agreement with the holders of the 2010 and 2011 medium-term notes or any other party with respect to any concrete financing plan or plan for repayment of both notes yet. Furthermore, Yingli said it is currently in negotiations with the holders of its 2012 notes for potential solutions regarding their repayment.

Looking forward, Yingli said it expects to ship between 380 MW and 400 MW in the current quarter and between 2.1 GW and 2.2 GW in full fiscal year of 2017. Furthermore, the company specified that China and Japan will continue to be its two most important markets for this year.

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