In its financial report for the first quarter of 2011, the company said it is unable to provide a forecast for operating income “due to the high degree of uncertainty about the future development of purchase and sales prices.”
But the company said it’s still possible to achieve the same level of revenues as the previous quarter, provided demand increases in the second half of the year and production strategies are done as planned.
The year 2011 did start weak for Q-Cells, with revenues down by almost half on a year-on-year basis. The company’s revenues went from 232.3 million euros ($329 million) in the first quarter of 2010 to 125.1 million euros in the three-month period ending March 31, 2011.
In addition to weak demand, Q-Cells pointed to regulatory uncertainty in the major solar markets of France and Italy as causing low revenues.
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Based on the Germany-based solar company’s observation, the photovoltaics industry is still highly dependent on developments in three core markets, all in Europe – Germany, Italy and France.
“Even though the future markets in North America and Asia are growing steadily, they were unable to compensate for weak demand in Europe during the first quarter,” Q-Cells said.
At the same time, the company says recent talks in Germany about an “energy turnaround” following the events in Fukushima might not result in concrete structural changes on the international solar markets.
But Q-Cells said it will continue to expand its presence in 15 “core countries” internationally that account for over 80 percent of the global PV share.
“Despite the currently challenging market environment, we are convinced that we are on the right path with our strategic transformation” said Nedim Cen, Q-Cells chief executive. “We will continue the consistent pursuit of this path.”
Q-Cells’ non-GAAP earnings for the first quarter stood from 18.8 million last year to 15.3 million, or down 18.6 percent. Earnings before interest and taxes at -10.6 million for the first quarter of 2011 also came in slightly below the same period of last year’s -9.3 million.
Q-Cells produced 313 megawatts’ worth of solar panels, of which 29 MW is thin-film. The company’s year-to-date share performance is down 1.27 percent. Its shares were selling at 2.48 euros apiece as of press time on Thursday, down 3.72 percent from the previous day.
Q-Cells’ price movement has generally tracked that of industry benchmark Ardour Solar Energy Index, of which Q-Cells is a constituent, slightly up at 7.73 percent since the start of the year.
