SolarOne, which is based in Shanghai, China, but part of the Seoul-based Hanwha Corporation, now expects 2012 module shipments of between 825MW and 850MW, down from its previously forecast 900MW to 1GW.
Third-quarter shipments, including module processing services, were 239.5MW, up 4% on the second quarter but 19% down year-on-year.
The US-listed company posted a third-quarter net loss of 322.1m yuan ($51.3m) against 177.6m yuan at the same stage in 2011 and 266.7m in the second quarter of 2012.
SolarOne’s gross margin was negative 5.8%, compared with a positive 6.3% in the second quarter. The company says this was due to the decline in average selling prices for its modules outpacing the fall in production costs.
Revenues were 966.1m yuan, a one-third decrease on the level achieved in Q3 2011.
Ki-Joon Hong, chief executive of Hanwha SolarOne says: "In spite of a difficult operating environment, we achieved some good progress in shipment and production costs during the third quarter even though we suffered from continued ASP decline.”
The SolarOne boss adds that he is “increasingly seeing synergies with our parent company, particularly in downstream activities. We also anticipate opportunities resulting from the cooperation with Q-Cells, which was recently acquired by our parent company."
Like other Asian PV groups, Hanwha SolarOne is citing growth in key regional markets such as China and Japan as further grounds for optimism.
SolarOne has just announced a 155MW deal to supply modules to two PV projects in South Africa.
