Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Philip Shen: Great. Thanks for that detail, Shawn. And a quick follow-up on that. I was wondering if you could share what your expectations for CapEx would be for 2023? We have the details of expansion of ingot and wafer to 25 gigawatts cell to 35 gigawatts module to 50. So if you could share that CapEx, that would be helpful? And then you also gave 2023 shipment guidance, I was wondering if you could give expectations for project sales and battery shipments for 2023 as well? Thanks.

Shawn Qu: Hi, Phil. We are still working on the CapEx plan. As I said, some of the projects will be tied to the cash flow in particular capital injection, such as IPO. So we’re planning to release the CapEx estimate in March 2023 earnings call. And — but at the same time, as I said, the module and cell CapEx and the capacity expansion is more or less secured. So we will — now also, as you know, Canadian Solar has always been conservative so that — and also, we have very strong like — and the diversified customer distributed around the world. So even without heavy polysilicon, capacity expansion, we are still confident to reach our volume cells target and also to expand the gross margin from today’s level.

Philip Shen: Great. Thanks. Another one for me here. In terms of freight, I was wondering if you could break out in Q3. How much your freight cost was in either absolute dollars or cents per watt? And then how do you — I know it’s expected to go lower. How much do you expect it to be in Q4 and maybe into Q1 of next year? Thanks.

Yan Zhuang: So Phil, it’s — in Q3, it’s about $0.023 and Q4 is coming down. It’s about less than $0.02. So that’s our estimate.

Philip Shen: Great. Thank you, Yan. One last one. Can you talk about the OpEx and EBITDA trajectory from here maybe over the next few years? To what degree — how much operating leverage do you think you have? And if you can speak to both OpEx and the EBITDA trajectory, that would be fantastic? Thanks.

Shawn Qu: Huifeng, do you want to address this question?

Huifeng Chang: The OpEx number changed. The big part is driven by the shipping cost, the selling and other cost. So — but other numbers, they increased slightly because of the size of our team become larger as we ramp up the capacity. But as well if we do the analysis, OpEx slashed by total revenue, I think going to the coming quarters, it will decline. It will be somewhere around the low teen.

Philip Shen: Great. Thank you very much. I’ll pass it on.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question.

Colin Rusch: Thanks, so much. Guys, can you talk a little bit about the pricing dynamics for the energy storage market in the utility scale side? Just curious how you’re seeing that trend, given the growth in the backlog?

Shawn Qu: Hi. Colin, can you repeat your question?

Colin Rusch: Sure. Given the strong growth — yes, given the strong growth in the utility scale storage pipeline, can you talk about the pricing dynamics and what you’re seeing in terms of moves in pricing, given what we’ve seen in the energy markets as well as the utility grade market?