Yingli Green Energy Conference Call Highlights, Shares Jump

Shares of Yingli Green Energy YGE are trading up over eight percent following its first quarter earnings release on Tuesday. Shares are down 22 percent year-to-date.

Below are some highlights and key takeaways from its conference call:

Financial Performance:

• The company significantly improved its financial performance by delivering overall gross margin of 15.7 percent, a substantial increase from 12.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.

• This is expected to remain in the range of 14 to 16 percentage also in the second quarter of 2014.

• We have been in significant demand uptake from China as well as emerging markets such as South America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

• An upward trend is that will it continue in second half of 2014.

• We therefore expect our shipments in the second quarter to be in the range of 870 megawatts to 950 megawatts.

• Year-over-year our revenues increased by 60 percent while at quarter-over-quarter it was slightly down from what is traditionally a very big fourth quarter.

International Performance:

• In the first quarter, we may witness the continued evolution of demand diversification.

• Exceptional demand from Japan and other emerging markets.

• Steady growth from U.S. and stabilization in Europe.

• In Poland and promising signals for the first quarter in 2014.

• In Japan, our shipment increased by more than 30 percent quarter-over-quarter, while customer base quadrupled.

• The precaution for sales to market outside China, U.S. and Europe doubled and accounted for 35 percent of our total shipments in the first quarter of 2014 versus 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

• The company continues to explore project development opportunities outside of China and expect to achieve milestone in the second half of 2014.

• The company also plans to offset all of these carbon emissions arising from its promotional activities in Brazil as part of its mission to help make the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil the cleanest in history.

• In Latin America and the Caribbean, we continue to see tremendous activity.
• In the formation of solid opportunities that would catalyze the next wave of substantial growth in sustainable markets.

• Our Mexican and Brazilian subsidiaries continue the expansion of local operations.

• Positive results from our focus on digital activities as the [ph] enabler of customer acquisition.

• We experienced a sequential increase in shipments to Europe as a result of success in winning supply for several UK projects previously announced.

• Europe's contribution to our global shipments in Q1 was 18.4 percent versus 10.8 percent in the previous quarter.

• We continue to invest in our customer portfolio, brand presence in local team in the Balkan region.