Canadian Solar Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Canadian Solar's third quarter 2019 earnings conference call. My name is Tara and I will be your operator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I'd now like to turn the call over to Ed Job, Managing Director of Canadian Solar's IR Department. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Tara, and welcome everyone to Canadian Solar's third quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Dr. Sean Chu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Yan Zhong, Acting Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Operating Officer. and Dr. Huifang Zhang, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On this call, Xiong will provide a brief introduction, followed by Yan, who will review the execution of our business strategy and outlook, and Huifang, who will go over our financial results. We will then open the call to your questions. Before we begin, may I remind listeners that management's prepared remarks today, as well as their answers to your questions, will contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Therefore, the company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from management's current expectations. Any projections of the company's future performance represent management's estimates as of today's call. Canadian Solar assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future unless otherwise required by applicable law. A more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties can be found in the company's annual report on Form 20F, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management's prepared remark will be presented within the requirements of SEC Regulation G regarding generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Some financial information presented during the call will be provided on both GAAP and non-GAAP basis. By disclosing certain non-GAAP information, management intends to provide investors with additional information to permit further analysis of the company's performance and underlying trends. Management uses non-GAAP measures to better assess operating performance and to establish operational goals. Non-GAAP information should not be viewed by investors as a substitute for data prepared in accordance with GAAP. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Canadian Solar's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Sean Chu. Sean, please go ahead.

Thanks, Ed, and work hard, everyone. This was another strong quarter for Canadian solar. Total module shipment was ahead of the expectations, and our growth margin was up significantly. Overall, global demand levels remain robust, and our strong brand bankability and reliability continues to command a premium for our products. We expect these positive trends to continue into 2020, given the compelling economic benefits for solar and the broader push for renewable energy. We are seeing stable pricing trends cross our key markets, especially in markets where we have a leading position. including the US, Japan and Brazil. Then we'll update you on our business and pipeline. I would just like to emphasize that our integrated business model remains at the center of our success. Synergies from our model, from our module and project businesses continue to give Canadian solar an important competitive advantage. Our global late-stage project pipeline stands at 2.4 gigawatts, exceeding Q3. We are on track and committed to monetizing the portfolio as we move forward. The diversity of our pipeline In thought after market will enable us to secure an attractive ROI for the company and shareholders. This in turn gives us increased visibility and added confidence in our outlook. As we have said in the past, we will use the process of the project asset sales to invest into and other development opportunities that meet our criteria. This includes higher ASP markets such as Japan and fast developing markets like Brazil. Our goal is to deliver profitable growth, high project returns and greater stability in our monetization process. In 18 years, Since founding Canadian Solar in 2001, innovation has been at the center of everything we do. One of our competitive advantages is our ability to commercialize higher efficiency solar modules, which helps us to lower the total cost of solar systems and create value for customers. For example, our team recently set another world record of 22.8% conversion efficiency for T-type multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. R&D and innovation leadership will always be one of our key priorities. Finally, we continue to strategically and cautiously invest in capacity expansion. Canadian Solar is the world's leading cell and module manufacturer, and our capacity is designed to flexibly support customers' changing demands. Our business strategy has allowed us to remain nimble while benefiting from significant efficiency improvement across the manufacturing design chain. Overall, I'm pleased with our team's continued progress and our financial results with Q3. We are positive in our outlook based on demand levels and the strength of Canadian Solar's business. Our priority remains unchanged to increase value for the company and our shareholders. With that, I would like to pass the line