Shawn Qu
Analyst · Roth Capital
Thank you, Ed, and thank you, all, for joining us on the call today. I would like to welcome many new investors and analysts joining us on the call for the first time today. We thank you for your support during this exciting period of our company's development. We are very pleased with our results for the second quarter, which exceeded the high end of our guidance, both for revenue and gross margin. In Q2, we shipped 455-megawatt, comfortably exceeding our guidance of 388 to 428 megawatt for the quarter. Importantly, we improved our gross margin to 12.8%. Strength and demand for our high-quality solar modules came from Japan where the volume up 95% compared to Q1, as well as from U.S., Canada and other emerging markets in Asia. Our module sales to Japan reached 162-megawatt this quarter, representing 35.7% of total deliveries in the quarter. This includes about 18 megawatt of integrated residential rooftop kits, which deliver higher per watt sales volume and higher profit margin. We expect to maintain such volume and to grab around 8% to 10% market shares in Japan. Gross margin improvement in Q2 reflect the benefit of our geographic exposure to Japan and U.S., our project business in Canada, as well as our continuous efforts to reduce our manufacturing cost. Returning to profitability for the full year 2013 remains our driving focus in everything we do at Canadian Solar. We are encouraged by our progress and remain on track. In Q2, we substantially reduced our reliance on the European market, which represented less than 11% of our total revenue. This follows the action we took starting in late Q1 to minimize the risk associated with trade dispute between EU and China, as well as to focus on more profitable opportunities in other markets. The balance of our Q2 revenue came from North America, representing 37.8%, and Asia accounting for 51.6% of total revenue. It is worth mentioning that our diversified global sales network and brand reputation allow us to do this without any impact of our total shipment volume. On the other hand, Europe is still an important market to us. We expect to benefit from the trade deal just reached between EU and China as uncertainty is now removed. The real story in the quarter for us was our continuous execution of our project pipeline. We have taken major steps over the past few years to move away from being a pure module supplier and into becoming a solar system solutions provider. During the quarter, we completed the sale of the 10-megawatt Brockville 1 PV power plant valued at over CAD 55 million to TransCanada Corporation. We also announced an agreement to sell 4 solar power plants, totaling 53.9 megawatt DC for over CAD 270 million to BluEarth Renewables. We will receive milestone payment, and these sales will be recognized as revenue in 2014. In addition, subsequent to the end of the quarter, we announced the agreement to sell 5 solar power plants totaling 68 megawatt DC, valued at over CAD 290 million to Concord Green Energy. These sales will also be recognized in 2014. Another important take away from today's call is that we are executing on strategic opportunities on a larger scale. One example is our historical EPC agreement to build a 130-megawatt utility-scale solar power plant in Ontario, Canada on behalf of Samsung Renewable Energy. This is the largest EPC agreement ever for Canadian Solar and is expected to generate revenues of over CAD 310 million. These contracts may be extended to Phase 2 and 3, each expected to be 130 megawatt DC once these 2 phases receive permitting from Ontario Power Authority. We are proud of our collaborating relationship with Samsung, which we've developed over the past 3 years and we believe this agreement is a testament to our track record of success and our strong competitive position in the Canadian market. Our pipeline of fully permitted and late stage utility-scale projects now stands at over 796 megawatt DC, with approximately 370 megawatt in Canada, 220 megawatt in U.S., 166 megawatt in Japan and 36 megawatt under construction in China. We currently have buyers lined up for all of our projects in Canada and expect to be making additional announcement as sales contracts are finalized. In addition, we have multiple-gigawatt of early and mid-stage projects under development in U.S., Japan and China. In summary, we continue to gain momentum in our total solution business. We planted the seeds for our success a few years ago as we search for opportunities to differentiate our business model from the ME2 commodity module suppliers. This was not an obvious move to many. Our focus and determination in executing our differentiated strategy is now paying off for Canadian Solar and our investors. Meanwhile, we have also been actively diversifying our geographic exposure. Our focus on new growth markets give us a first mover advantage. This allows us to build our distribution network and to establish our brand. We have successfully leveraged the same strategy in other key markets, which has contributed to our volume and gross margin improvement in the quarter. Clearly, our strategic position in the solar power industry is differentiated and strong. And as we continue to execute our existing project pipeline, we are also focused on securing new opportunities in low-risk countries such as Canada, U.S. and Japan, as well as our success in opening new markets in Asia. We remain well positioned to return to profitability and emerge from the current cycle as a strong, global industry leader. Now let me comment on our guidance for Q3 and the full year 2013. We expect Q3 shipments will be in the range of approximately 410 to 430 megawatt. We expect Q3 demand to be mainly driven by Japan, Canada, the U.S., as well as other emerging markets in Asia. Our gross margin in Q3 is expected to be in the range of 10% to 12%. Three of our solar power projects in Ontario, William Rutley, Brockville 2 and Burritts Rapids have reached commercial operation. These projects are connected to the grid, and have been generating stable and higher than expected feed-in tariff income for us. These 3 projects are in acceptance tests, which is part of the sales closing process with the end buyer. We expect to realize approximately $60 million additional revenue, with 20% to 25% gross margin for each project once the transactions are completed. However, our current guidance for Q3 does not include the potential sales and revenue recognition for any of these 3 projects. For full year 2013, we maintain our module shipment guidance of approximately 1.6 to 1.8 gigawatt, including modules used in our own projects. Our focus in shipment volume remains and maintains our track record of continuous annual shipment growth. But as I said, our main focus for 2013 is to return to profitability for the full year. Now let me turn the call over to our CFO, Michael Potter, for a more detailed review of our financials. Michael, please go ahead.