Canadian Solar Inc.

Greetings, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Canadian Solar's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. My name is Melissa, and I will be your operator for 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 would now like to turn the call over to Isabel Zhang, IR Director at Canadian Solar. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome everyone to Canadian Solar's first quarter 2023 conference call. Please note that we have provided slides to accompany today's conference call, which are available on Canadian Solar's investor relations website, within the events and presentation section. Joining us today are Dr. Sean Chu, Chairman and CEO, Yen-Chung, President of Canadian Solar's majority-owned subsidiary, CSI Solar, Dr. Huixin Chen, Senior VP and CFO, and Ismael Guerrero, Corporate VP and President of Canadian Solar's wholly owned subsidiary, Recurrent Energy, formerly Global Energy. All company executives will participate in the Q&A session after management's formal remarks. On this call, Sean will go over some key messages for the quarter. Yen and Ismail will respectively review the highlights of the CSI solar and recurrent energy businesses, followed by Huifeng, who will go through the financial results. Sean will conclude the prepared remarks with the business outlook, after which we'll have time for questions. Before we begin, may I remind listeners that management's prepared remarks today, as well as their answers to questions, will contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. 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. 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, Form 20F, also the Securities and Exchange Commission. Management's prepared remarks 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 a GAAP and a 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. And now, I would like to turn the call over to Canadian Solar's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Shawn Chu. Shawn, please go ahead.

Thank you, Isabelle, and hi, everyone. Welcome and thanks for joining us today. Now, please turn to slide three. We had a very strong start to the year in what is typically a seasonally soft quarter. We delivered 6.1 gigawatts of module shipments in Q1 with $1.7 billion in revenue and also a solid gross margin at 18.7%. Importantly, this was one of the strongest quarters in Canadian solar's history in terms of underlying net profit. Our team has done an excellent job in executing our long-term strategy. We continue to build on our technology, brand, and customer relationships. This is further strengthening our leadership position and driving high-quality, profitable growth. I'm very thankful to my global team for their focus and outstanding work. Please turn to slide four. Canadian Solar is a Canadian company listed in the U.S. with a global manufacturing base predominantly in Asia. We proudly support customers across the world in their decarbonization efforts as we work to make a more sustainable world for future generations. This is our core motivation. We have developed some of the most technologically advanced and competitive clean energy solutions. And we care about doing business ethically, sourcing our materials responsibly and treating our employees fairly. We thrive in open and competitive markets where our renewable products command a premium as we leverage our competitive advantages, strong brand and long track record. For example, we are strongly committed to the U.S. market where we have been building our long-term partnerships. We have delivered some of the most iconic projects in the U.S. market, such as the 1.4 gigawatt Crimson storage project in California. We are also excited about the 100 megawatt solar virtual power purchase agreement we recently signed in Texas with a consortium of five industry leaders in their respective fields. And now we are also investing in U.S. manufacturing, further contributing to local communities. Over the past week, we have been reviewing the most recent US IRA guidance on domestic content. As an initial assessment, we think it is encouraging that the guidance promotes investment in clean energy capacity across the supply chain and provides incentives for both the demand and supply of clean energy. Our position is to continue to support and deliver value to our customers. Importantly, we believe that this guidance removes a policy overhang from customer's standpoint. As a result, we think this will help them make more informed decisions and move faster in executing their growth plans. Please turn to the next slide. Finally, let me comment on the CSI solar Carvalt ITO. The full financial audits have been completed and I have signed off on the numbers. We expect the updated CSI Solar prospectus to be published on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website soon. We hope the IPO can be completed over the next few weeks before the end of the second quarter. With that, let me now turn over to Ian, who will provide more detail on our CSI solar business.