LDK Solar outlook falls below Wall Street view

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - LDK Solar Co., which makes wafers used in solar cells, said Thursday its second-quarter wafer shipments will top an earlier forecast, but sales will come in below Wall Street's expectations.

For the quarter that ended June 30, LDK Solar said it expects to ship 220 megawatts to 230 megawatts of wafers. That's more than the 200 megawatts to 220 megawatts previously forecast.

"During the second half of the second quarter, our wafer shipments were driven by stronger than expected demand," said Xiaofeng Peng, chairman and CEO, in a statement. "We are encouraged by the recent improvement in market demand and expect to resume the expansion of our wafer plant with the goal of reaching 2.0 GW annualized wafer capacity by the end of 2009."

However, LDK Solar also predicted sales of $215 million to $225 million, about half as much as in the year-ago quarter and below Wall Street's current view. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect LDK Solar to post $247.2 million in sales, on average.

The company said it has secured two new loans of about $73 million each, a one-year loan from the Export-Import Bank of China and a three-year loan from Huarong International Trust Co. Ltd.

LDK Solar, which is based in Xinyu City, China, makes multicrystalline solar wafers, the main raw material used to produce solar cells.

U.S.-traded shares of LDK Solar slipped 37 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $10.54 in after-hours trading after sinking 34 cents to close the regular session at $10.91.

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