As previewed in February, Canadian Solar's
Shipments in the quarter dropped to an abysmal 19.6 megawatts, belying the considerable scale that this Chinese solar shop has achieved (and loudly proclaimed). Competitors Yingli Green Energy
In Yingli's case, I'd attributed the company's resilience to its European clientele. That was clearly too simplistic, because Canadian Solar's European sales dropped by a greater percentage sequentially than did its sales in Asia. Catering to the better-established markets isn't enough -- you have to target the well-capitalized companies within those markets. Yingli has done exactly that, in partnering with established PV players like IBC Solar. CSI, on the other hand, wrote off some bad debt in connection with certain German (and American) customers.
As we saw with Trina, JA Solar
In fact, CSI's guidance explicitly relies on just such a back-half recovery, specifically with regard to macroeconomic conditions. This doesn't strike me as a particularly conservative assumption, and I would be disinclined to put my own investment dollars with anyone counting on such a snap-back recovery.