Trina Solar (TSL) is surging another 7% this morning after the company posted a profit of .33/share (taking out one time costs) vs the expectations of a .05 loss.  Revenues were a bit lighter than expected, but still 9% above the year ago quarter, so certainly better results out of Trina then what we’ve seen from most of its competitors (with the exception of First Solar). 

The company had expected solar module shipments of 50 – 55MW for the quarter, but were shy of that, shipping 48.8MW.  On the bright side that still represents an increase of 65% over the year ago period and gross margins spiked higher from 9.6% in the 4th quarter to 17.2% in the 1st quarter.  The company expects to ship 60 – 65MW in the 2nd quarter and further improve gross margins to 18 – 20%

CEO comments:

“first quarter was adversely affected by unusually harsh weather in our key European markets”

“Improved conditions beginning in April have contributed to increasing customer deliveries and higher levels of new contracts and projects.”

“In the first quarter, we continued to leverage our low cost platform by reducing our manufacturing cost to approximately $0.79 per watt for our multicrystalline product.”

“We have increased our in-house production capacities for cells and modules to over 400 MW as of May 2009, as a result of improvements in production process enhancements and improved cell conversion efficiency, which required minimal capital investment.”

“We are encouraged by recent announcements outlining China’s national solar investment subsidy program, which is expected to commence this year. We are also involved in the development of a local Jiangsu subsidy program, which is viewed as a model provincial incentive program to potentially compliment the national subsidies. We are confident that our Changzhou presence will give us access to project opportunities created by these programs. To-date we have submitted 8 initial proposals for the national subsidy program in our name and through project joint venture.

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