Price declines, oversupply to hit solar in third quarter

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20124807-54/price-declines-oversupply-to-hit-solar-in-third-quarter/

Price declines, oversupply to hit solar in third quarter

by Reuters October 24, 2011 11:37 AM PDT

The solar industry is in for a dire quarter as falling government subsidies and low volumes further drive down equipment prices at a time when oversupply has already led many sector players to lower their full-year profit outlook.

A pickup in demand for solar panels, widely expected by industry players for the second half, failed to materialize, pushing several U.S. companies, most notably panel maker Solyndra, to file for bankruptcy in recent months.

European players have been cutting their outlooks on falling demand in Germany, among them SMA Solar, the world's No.1 maker of solar inverters and Europe's top solar company by market value.

"We will see quite a dismal set of result," said Thiemo Lang, a senior portfolio manager at Sustainable Asset Management, owner of Yingli Green, Canadian Solar and Trina Solar shares as of July.

…

[FBaggins]

1. Odd title...

...since the quarter is already over.

Regardless... this is a bit longer than industry analysts expected late last year.

There's a good chance that a lousy quarter is already priced in to current stock prices (which have been hammered)... so even a minor "beat" could still see a positive move.

[OnlinePoker]

2. The article is talking about their earnings reports for the 3rd quarter.

It's not so much the stock prices that are at issue here. Stock prices may go down, but that's money that's already been invested. It's the ability of the companies to secure financing to continue operations if they are already losing money that's going to kill a lot of them. You know things are bad when Chinese manufacturers, with their much lower production costs, are going to be reporting big losses.