Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Philip Shen: Okay, great. Thank you, Shawn. And then from the 45x standpoint, sorry if I missed this, but did you guys share the benefit in Q1, can you share, if not what it was, and then what you expect in Q2 and Q3?

Shawn Qu: Well, the 45x, the IRA incentive is for U.S. module production. We are still ramping up the U.S. factory. So the Q1 shipment from the key [ph] factory is still small, insignificant compared with the total 6.3 gigawatt. From Q2 or Q3 hopefully, from Q2 we will see significant numbers. So I will be more than happy to share, to address this question again in three months when we report Q2.

Philip Shen: Okay, great, thank you, Shawn. I will pass it on.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Brian Lee: Hey, guys, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I might have missed this but could you give us a little bit of color behind the gross margin guidance for 2Q, I mean, you had a really solid gross margin results in 1Q and it sounded like, battery storage was part of that. So why are gross margins being guided down in 2Q, despite the higher mix of battery and then you even mentioned some lower costs on the module side, and you have higher revenue, so just wondering what’s driving the lower gross margin view into 2Q?

Shawn Qu: I believe our Q1, actual gross margin exceeded our guiding range, and — on the top of the guiding range. So I hope in Q2, we can also do better than we guide. When we provide guidance, we do it according to the current numbers and it’s difficult to be so accurate. So I will say, I’m not going to say, the 16% to 18% guidance, it is not much lower than 19% actually realized. I would say that’s the same range. And talking about the costs, indeed, the cost of solar modules and the materials, especially the silicone related materials went out again, in the past few weeks. However, maybe in some of the market, some of the low-end market the price moved down as well. So that’s why we are cautious in modeling our gross margin for Q2. But as I said, I hope we can report a better number than what we guided.

Brian Lee: Okay, that’s helpful, Shawn. So maybe some conservatism baked into that. Again, if we drill down into that a bit more then, can you give us a sense for what gross margin expectation you’re embedding for the 2Q guidance for solar modules versus the gross margin, you’re embedding for battery storage, just in the 2Q guidance? And then what do you expect for gross margin cadence for both various product sets within CSI Solar in the second half of the year?

Shawn Qu: Yeah, I will let Yan to provide colors on these details.

Yan Zhuang: Right, so on the gross margin, we don’t separate. We don’t disclose the separation of the margin. But I can tell you in the previous calls, we mentioned about 20%, around 20%, for your [indiscernible] storage. So on the margin side, as Shawn has mentioned, we try to be conservative, because we try also to sell more in Q2. So we try to get more volume while achieving a healthy margin. So let’s see if we can do better. So moving into second half, well, we have lot of uncertainties for second half I have to say, but we’ll know that it’s not going to be worse than first half. This is our bet, our belief. And we’re confident that we actually continue to improve on both cost and quality of our capacity and especially, we have strong confidence in our e-STORAGE business which is getting significantly stronger in the second half.

Also we are seeing aside from the distribution channel in U.S., Europe, and Japan are bouncing back on both pricing and demand. We are also seeing new markets are actually growing faster. So, that is also somewhere that we can grow. So, I think I hope that answers your question.

Brian Lee: Okay, yeah super helpful. I will take the rest offline. Thank you.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call over to the management. Please continue.

Shawn Qu: Thank you for joining us today. And also thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or would like to set up a call, please contact our Investor Relations team. Take care and have a nice day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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