First Solar Inc Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brian Lee - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Hey, guys. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe a follow-up to Phil's question for you, Mark. It might be tough to answer specifically, but on the Q1 call you guys have said, I think, it was 2.6 gigawatts of production in India shipping a-gigawatt-plus to the US and then presumably the rest shipping domestically in India. Clearly that calculus is changing here. So can you give us a sense of what that mix would look like going forward? And then how many quarters it does take to reengineer and then reallocate that India volume back to the US where it sounds like you're going to take advantage of better pricing? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 29, 2024 / 8:30PM, FSLR.OQ - Q3 2024 First Solar Inc Earnings Call And then just on the rest of your guidance, it seems if you do the math, it's 5.4 gigawatts or so in that neighborhood of sold volume in Q4. It's significantly higher than any run rate you've seen in the past would be a record. How derisked do you see that volumes sold level, especially in the context of -- you're mentioning some pushouts and things that maybe aren't staying on customer timelines as you might have initially anticipated? Thanks, guys.

Question: Julien Dumoulin Smith - Jefferies Group LLC - Analyst : Hey, good afternoon team. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. If I can follow up on a couple of things. First, small detail, coming out of the Q just with respect to the S7 manufacturing warranty piece you kind of alluded to some ongoing risk. Have you fully remediated the backdrop here around the $50 million warranty liability? I just wanted to get a little bit more color there, and more specifically, comfort level on resolving that prospectively. And then if I could get the second question and then related to it. Going back to what you were talking about a second ago with respect to India, just want to understand the safe harbor dialogue and what you anticipate doing here. Is there a potential to effectively swap in panels maybe from a different origin than what had been previously contemplated? Is this a net increase in overall blending of foreign panels in? Or is it just about providing greater latitude on where those panels are coming from? I just want to make sure I understood exactly what you were saying there. Thank you.

Question: Kashy Harrison - Piper Sandler & Co - Analyst : Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. So just two quick ones. It feels like perhaps there's going to be a broader strategic pivot towards sending -- maybe not quite the '25 gig as well close to the '25 gigs of product eventually to the US in coming years. Based on your discussions with the customers, do you think that the US market will have enough demand to absorb these volumes? And then just one quick follow-up on the CuRe plan. Just wondering how we should think about the CuRe gigawatts that could be recognized next year, the ASP uplift and then the incremental margins for CuRe? Thank you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 29, 2024 / 8:30PM, FSLR.OQ - Q3 2024 First Solar Inc Earnings Call

Question: Andrew Percoco - Morgan Stanley & Co LLC - Analyst : Great. Thanks so much for taking the question. I guess, I want to come back to the guidance for volumes sold for the year. It sounds like a majority of the reduction was a result of some of the operational challenges you've had plus some of the India headwinds that you're facing. But I didn't hear too much in terms of US-based project delays influencing that guidance. Can you maybe just talk a little bit more about what you're seeing from customers in terms of their request for delays? Is that duration getting extended? I think you guys have historically talked about getting requests in a several week time frame for delays? Are you seeing things get pushed REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 29, 2024 / 8:30PM, FSLR.OQ - Q3 2024 First Solar Inc Earnings Call six months to a year, just given the uncertainty of the election? Just hoping to get more context in terms of what you're seeing from customers on the project delay side? Thank you.