Both Suntech’s third-quarter sales and earnings are down significantly on last year’s figures. The firm turned over sales of $473.1m in the third quarter, down from $594.4m in the same period last year. Net income fell to $29.8m from $42.6m.

But Suntech appears to have put the worst of the solar slump behind hit, recording a 47% improvement in sales compared to the second quarter, while more than doubling its earnings.

The rapid turnaround is “largely due to a seasonal rush before end-of-the-year policy adjustments, and improvement customer returns on investments in solar projects,” the company says.

Suntech raised its 2009 shipment guidance to between 640 megawatts (MW) and 660MW, up from its prior estimate of 600MW.

The company adds that it expects to see further shipment growth of 75% in 2010. As a result, Suntech is pushing ahead with expansion plans, and now targets a production capacity of 1.4 gigawatts by mid-2010.

After the worst six-month period in the history of the solar industry, a number of companies, including China's JA Solar and Germany's SolarWorld, have become optimistic about the industry's short-term prospects. Suntech, like others, believes the combination of vastly cheaper solar panels and markets opening up around the world will drive the industry to new heights in 2010 and beyond.

Suntech recently selected Phoenix as the site of its first US factory. The plant, which will have an initial capacity of 30MW, will be the first manufacturing facility built in the US by a Chinese solar firm.

Suntech, like many cell and module makers, is also trying to carve out a place for itself within the project-development industry in order to secure a market for its finished products. Suntech is currently working on a 50MW utility-scale project in China’s Nigxia Autonomous Region, and another 10MW project in Dongtai, Jiangsu province.