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Daqo New Energy Corp. (DQ)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Mon, May 12, 2014

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Transcript

Bing Sun

Management

Thanks everybody for joining us today for Daqo New Energy’s First Quarter 2014 Unaudited Financial Results Conference Call. Daqo New Energy issued its financial results for the first quarter 2014 just after the market close, which can be found on the Company’s Web site. To facilitate today’s conference we have put together a PPT presentation for your reference. Today, attending the conference call we have Dr. Yao, our CEO, and myself. The call today will feature an update from Dr. Yao on business and operational developments, and then I will discuss the Company’s financial performance for the first quarter. After that we will open the floor to Q&A from the audience. Without further delay, I will now turn the call over to Dr. Yao.

Gongda Yao

Management

Thank you, Bing. Today, I’m pleased to report Daqo New Energy’s return to profitability in the first quarter of 2014. We increased the shipment volume by 9.4% quarter-on-quarter to 1,391 metric tons, expanded EBITDA margin to 32.5% from 21.9% in the previous quarter and produced a positive net income attributable to Daqo shareholders of 2.6 million, making the Company’s return to profitability on the net income basis for the first time since the third quarter of 2011. This was achieved despite the costs related to the non-operational Chongqing polysilicon plant of $3.7 million this quarter. I would also like to highlight that we have continued to reduce our cost achieving a cash cost of $11.8 per kilo excluding depreciation and the production cost of $14.5 per kilo including depreciation in the first quarter, which we believe is among the lowest globally. We will continue to optimize our operation and improve our cost structure in the remaining quarters of 2014. We expect our average cash cost excluding depreciation and the production cost including depreciation to be approximately $11.3 per kilo and $14 per kilo respectively 2014 fiscal year. After we expanding our polysilicon annual capacity from 6,150 metric tons to 12,150 metric tons and upgrade our production process, we expected to further low our polysilicon cash cost and production cost to approximately $8.7 per kilo and $12 per kilo, respectively by Q2 of 2015. By executing our strategy of reducing costs and producing high quality polysilicon, we have emerged as strong and more profitable company. We also benefit from the continued strong demand in the TV market and the high quality of our product, which increasing, increased ASPs to $21.63 from $18.67 in the previous quarter. On the capacity front, following the debottlenecking project in December 2013, we have now reached…

Bing Sun

Management

Thank you Dr. Yao. Let’s now walk through the company’s Q1 financial performance. Revenue was $42.1 million, compared to $77 million in the first quarter of last year and a $14.5 million in the first quarter of 2013. The company generated a revenue of $30.1 million from polysilicon, a 24% increase relative to revenue of $24.2 million in the fourth quarter of last year. The increase in revenue was primarily attributable to higher sales volumes and higher average selling prices. ASP increased 16.8% to $21.63 per kilo in Q1 from $18.67 per kilo in Q4 of last year, while sales volume increased 6.3% to 1,391 metric ton in Q1 from 1,309 in Q4 of last year. You should note that we are selling 100% of our production and in fact, our capacity constraints are limiting our sales growth potentials right now. the company generated $12 million from sales of a wafer, compared to $12.8 million in the first quarter of last year. the slight decrease in wafer revenue is due to our decision this quarter to change our sales mix between our own wafers and the OEM wafers. Producing more OEM wafers allow us to transfer cash, which can be used for the polysilicon capacity expansion project that is underway. On the other hand, producing more OEM wafers increases our gross margins. In Q1 of 2014, we sold significantly more OEM wafers, selling 943,000 pieces of OEM wafers versus 300,000 pieces in Q4 of last year. Conversely, we only sold 800,000 pieces of our own wafer in Q1 versus 1.3 million pieces in the previous quarter. Gross profit was $9 million, compared to approximately $1 million in the fourth quarter of last year and the gross loss of $12.9 million in the first quarter of 2013. Gross margin was 21.4%,…

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) our first question comes from (indiscernible) of ROTH Capital.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Excellent, hey, Gongda and Bing, first I want to – congratulations for a very strong quarter and turning profitable.

Gongda Yao

Management

Thank you, Ming.

Bing Sun

Management

Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes. So, my first question is related to your cost reduction. So the cost reduction roadmap of region cash cost of $8.7 per kilo by 2Q 2015 was quite impressive. Can you give us some more color on the key areas where you plan to achieve those cost reduction?

Gongda Yao

Management

Okay. So let me try to ask your question. So we think the capacity increasing by 6,000 metric ton, I mentioned that, we have utilize the idle equipment improvement, so we only need invest about $100,000 million. So with and so our depreciation cost per kilo basis were not increasing after our expansion first of all. Secondly, in electricity consumption by using hydrochlorination process was reduced by 30% roughly, which will give us about $1.5 per kilo saving for the cost of basis. So, as of 2014, as I said we were trying to reach our target goal we’ve been commented of 6,150 metric ton capacity that cost should be like below average about $15. So we think electricity saving about $1.5 and then we have other savings like efficiency using of material et cetera. So and plus the depreciation savings, so we’ll reach by $12 in the second quarter of 2015.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Okay. Great.

Bing Sun

Management

And Mr. Shen, I just want to add a few comments, introductory I just have said after we adopted hydrochlorination technology our electricity usage will be reduced by approximately once and that alone present $1.60 of the total reduction in total production cost. Okay. Thanks Mr. Shen.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Excellent color, so I appreciate that. My second question is relate to the SG&A even adding back to $1.8 million reversal of AR write-off, your SG&A was still in a (indiscernible) that’s $700,000 from last quarter. So can you give us some color where that reduction from and also can you give us some color on trend, how should we model next quarter SG&A?

Bing Sun

Management

Yes. Let me try to answer your question Mr. Shen. You’re absolutely right, for this quarter SG&A is relatively low, it’s only a $1.5 million. And normally the number should stay at around $3 million on quarterly basis and going forward and for spelling expenses as a percentage, it’s actually per demerger sales free to charge. So it’s correlation through the total sales volume, and for R&D it will remain as approximately 3% of the revenue because in order to maintain preferential taxes status we will have to keep R&D at 3%. So in summary, for SG&A excluding the fluctuation in bad debt reversal, it should remain at $3 million on quarterly basis, and it will not increase following the expansion project and hope that answers your question.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Yes, sure, we really appreciate the color and congratulations again. And I look forward to seeing you at (indiscernible) conference in Shanghai.

Gongda Yao

Management

Thank you, Ming.

Bing Sun

Management

Thank you.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Thanks, bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) and our next question comes from Paul Strigler at Esplanade. Paul Strigler – Esplanade Capital LLC: Hey guys. Question about the equity rates here, I thought on prior calls you mentioned you would be debt financing the expansion with a loan from your parent company the DQ Group. Did I misunderstand? Or did something change about how you decided to finance the project?

Bing Sun

Management

Let me try to answer your question first, and then Dr. Yao will add on to my comments. To be accurate we didn’t mention we will use debt financing in prior quarters conference calls. Previously, we mentioned that we will consider various options and including debt financing from parental company and also we are considering using the operating cash flow following the better performance this year. And of course, equity financing is always an option for us and Dr. Yao, can comment further on that.

Gongda Yao

Management

Yes, Paul and we are talking about the three options in the last conference call is the backlog and the biggest shareholder loan and as well as the equity market. Yes, driving on all those sides and to meet our expansion need. Also as I previously company will not stop at 6,000 metric ton expansion, we’re considering further after next expansion finished by Q2 2015. So definitely to meet those expansion plan company need to consider all possibility to funding those project of moving out in the future. So I hope this has answered your question. Paul Strigler – Esplanade Capital LLC: Understood, thanks a lot guys.

Bing Sun

Management

Thank you, Paul.

Gongda Yao

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

At this time we show no further questions. Mr. Bing Sun would you like to make any closing remarks.

Bing Sun

Management

Okay. As always we appreciate everybody participating in our conference call and if you guys have any further questions you can always call me or call Kevin and thanks again for your participation. Let’s keep in touch, bye-bye.