Daqo reported third quarter revenue of US$89.4 million, increasing from US$76.0 million in the previous quarter. Gross profit was US$36.4 million, up from US$24.2 million in the second quarter of 2017. The company reported a gross margin of 40.8%, increasing from 31.9% in the previous quarter.

Dr. Gongda Yao, Chief Executive Officer of Daqo New Energy said, "As a result of strong downstream PV market, the market remained short-supplied and polysilicon pricing increased throughout the third quarter.  Our third quarter polysilicon ASP were US$16.19/kg, representing a significant increase from the second quarter's ASP of US$13.58/kg.  As of today, we continue to see robust customer demand for our high quality polysilicon, with pricing in the approximate range of US$18.50/kg."

Polysilicon average total production cost was US$8.95/kg in the third quarter, compared to US$8.53/kg in the prior quarter.  The increase in production cost was primarily due to costs related to our annual maintenance, as well as exchange rate related impact and higher raw material cost," added Dr Yao.

Daqo reported revenues from polysilicon sales to external customers of US$72.9 million, increasing from US$61.1 million in the second quarter of 2017 and $44.4 million in the third quarter of 2016. 

External polysilicon sales volume was 4,500MT, increasing from 4,497MT in the second quarter of 2017 and 2,838 MT in the third quarter of 2016. 

Daqo reported third quarter wafer sales of US$16.5 million, increasing from US$14.9 million in the second quarter of 2017 and US$9.9 million in the third quarter of 2016. 

Wafer sales volume was 26.4 million pieces, compared to 27.0 million pieces in the second quarter of 2017 and 14.4 million pieces in the third quarter of 2016.

Guidance

Daqo said that it expected to produce 4,800MT to 5,000MT of polysilicon and sell approximately 4,300MT to 4,500MT to external customers during the fourth quarter of 2017. 

Wafer sales volume is expected to be approximately 25.0 million to 25.5 million pieces in the fourth quarter of 2017. 

"It is expected that the total annual solar PV installation in China will likely reach 50GW in 2017, which represents an approximate 40% increase compared to 2016. In addition, the United States is expected to install approximately 12GW in 2017 and India is expected to take over Japan to become the third largest solar PV installation market with approximately 10GW installation in 2017.  Based on the strong end market demand, we anticipate global annual solar PV installation would grow in the double-digit rate in 2017 as compared to 2016," noted Dr.Yao.