Suntech Power Holdings Company Limited, the largest solar panel producer in the world, brought up third quarter revenues at $743.7 million, representing a 19 percent quarter-on-quarter increase.
The company said it delivered larger photovoltaic shipments which increased by 25.3 percent.
“The third quarter was a highly productive period for Suntech. Shipments and revenues each hit new quarterly records and we reached production capacity of 1.6 gigawatts,” said Zhengrong Shi, chairman and chief executive.
“Indicative of our rapid market penetration, we sold more product in the Americas in the third quarter of 2010 than we did in the full year of 2009,” said Mr. Shi.
For the fourth quarter, Suntech expects a minimum of 10 percent sequential growth in shipments and a total of over 1.5 GW of solar product shipments, which marks more than a doubling up of from 2009.
This quarter, Suntech was picked by Bangchak Petroluem Public Company Limited for phase two of a 44-MW solar project in Thailand. Suntech also recently opened a new module manufacturing facility in Goodyear, Arizona.
The company projects $350 million of capital expenditures and 1.8 GW of installed cell and module production capacity by yearend.
Suntech (NYSE:STP) yesterday said it will acquire a 375-MW ingot and wafer slicing capacity in China for about $127 million. It will take over full operations by the fourth quarter.
However, the Wuxi-based company saw gross margin plummet from 18.2 percent to 16.4 percent due to lower average selling price of PV products and a marginal increase in the cost of silicon wafers.
