Trump Gives First Solar a Win on Tariffs And a Loss on Taxes

(Bloomberg) -- While most of the U.S. solar industry has blasted President Donald Trump for slapping tariffs on panel imports, one company still managed to score a quantifiable win.

In its first guidance since Trump imposed tariffs on solar cells and module imports to the U.S., First Solar Inc. raised sales for this year to as much as $2.65 billion from a December estimate of as much as $2.5 billion, according to a statement Thursday. First Solar’s thin-film panels were exempted from the tariff, so it expects to sell a lot more panels this year.

Shipments of First Solar’s two types of panels will reach as much as 3 gigawatts this year, or about 200 megawatts higher than the Tempe, Arizona-based company’s estimate before the tariffs were imposed on silicon panels that are mostly made in Asia. But the boost to the sales outlook comes at the same time that First Solar got knocked with a $408 million charge attributable to the tax overhaul Trump signed late last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Margot Habiby, Stephen Cunningham

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