CORRECTED - Higher shipments boost Canadian Solar net profit in Q1 2011

(Corrects information about operating profit and revenue)

In our story dated May 12, 2011 and headlined "Higher shipments boost Canadian Solar net profit in Q1 2011", please read in the third paragraph "Operating profit rose by 60.5% year-on-year to USD 34 million.", instead of "Operating profit rose by 60.5% year-on-year to USD 21.2 million."

A corrected version follows:

(ADPnews) - May 12, 2011 - Chinese PV product manufacturer Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) yesterday said its first-quarter net profit grew to USD 5.9 million (EUR 4.1m) from USD 1.5 million a year earlier, as shipments increased.

The result included USD 17.2 million in loss from foreign exchange hedging activities, the company said.

Operating profit rose by 60.5% year-on-year to USD 34 million.

Gross margins improved to 14.7% from 12.5%, meeting the company's guidance, mainly thanks to to cost efficiencies from increased in-house cell production.

Solar module shipments rose 31.9% to 244 MW, in line with the company's expectations, and drove revenue up 31.6% to USD 443.4 million. Sales to European markets accounted for 75.7% of revenue, sales to North American and Asian and other markets represented 12.2% of revenue each.

For the second quarter, Canadian Solar sees shipments of 245 MW-255 MW and gross margin of 13% to 15%. Additionally, the company expects to ship 100 MW of modules under delivery duty unpaid (DDU) or cash on delivery (COD) contract terms, to be booked as revenues in the third quarter. Full-year shipments guidance of 1.2 GW-1.3 GW is confirmed.

The company said it was on way to expand its annual solar cell capacity to 1.3 GW, and module capacity to 2 GW by the middle of the year.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.703)

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