US solar tracker systems provider FTC Solar, Inc achieved GAAP revenues of $26.2 million in Q4/2022, within the guided range but with an annual decline of 74.2% as it narrowed down its net loss to -$20.5 million attributing it to lower demand environment in the US due to regulatory situation that made it difficult for customers to get 'line of sight to solar modules'.
Revenues of Q4 were a sequential improvement of 58.2%, but there was GAAP gross loss of -$1.9 million or 7.3% of the revenue and 57.4% of revenue in the previous quarter, due to lower product revenue partially offset by improved logistics margin.
Its pipeline—read uncontracted projects to which it has visibility as a potential sales opportunity for its trackers—grew to 110 GW. Contracted and awarded orders as of February 28, 2023 was worth $1.2 billion.
"Importantly, the vast majority of the additions this period are not impacted by UFLPA. In aggregate, our backlog now includes approximately $400 million of non-UFLPA impacted projects as we continue to diversify our sales efforts," stated the company.
Philip Shen of Roth Capital Partners praised FTC Solar's business strategy in the midst of non-availability of solar modules saying it is doing a good job with the things it can control. "Despite the challenges with UFLPA module detentions, the company has found new areas of growth and expansion including international markets, new offerings such as the 1P tracker, along with deepening its ability to serve FSLR (Buy) customers," explained Shen.
For Q1/2023, FTC has forecast revenues within the range of $36.0 million to $40.0 million and non-GAAP gross profit of $0.7 million to $3.2 million, but non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA to be in the negative within -$10.3 million to -$6.8 million. For Q2/2023, the management said it expects to see continued operational improvements.
The management added, "The pace of the recovery in our largest market, the US, will largely be determined by the pace of improvement for the importation of modules into the US. Once improvement does occur at scale, we believe FTC Solar is increasingly well positioned competitively to capitalize on that growth, with a lowered cost-structure, innovative new products, a record pipeline and more than a billion dollars in backlog."
In February 2023, FTC roped in Thailand's Taihua New Energy to produce steel components for US utility scale solar PV projects (see US Solar Tracker Maker Wants Locally Produced Steel).