Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Q-Cells SE, once the world’s biggest solar company, dropped to a record-low in Frankfurt trading after reporting a quarterly net loss and forecasting a full-year operating loss in the “three-digit million euro” range.

Q-Cells fell 18 percent to 76.6 euro cents as of 5:30 p.m. local time, the lowest close since the stock started trading in October 2005. The Thalheim, Germany-based company posted a second-quarter net loss of 355 million euros ($504 million), even as it doubled sales from the previous three months.

Q-Cells and its peers Solarworld AG and Conergy AG, which are due to release results tomorrow, are struggling to combat dwindling orders in Europe, where Germany, Italy and France have cut solar subsidies in the past 12 months. They’re also under pressure from Chinese manufacturers that have boosted production capacity just as cell and module prices slump amid lower demand.

“Q-Cells is in big trouble,” Lars Dannenberg, an analyst with Berenberg Bank in London, said in a telephone interview. “If they want to survive, one of the options is an outside investor,” he said, adding that the company may need more money to repay a 211 million-euro bond due at the end of February.

“Demand for modules will pick up strongly in the second half but only at prices not achievable for companies with old manufacturing capacity,” Jenny Chase, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said by e-mail. “There is more overcapacity in silicon, wafers, cells and modules in 2012 than in 2011.”

Shift Abroad

Q-Cells is shifting some units to Asia from Germany in a bid to generate positive earnings before interest and tax next year. The company plans to transfer more cell production to its more modern plant in Malaysia, which will run at full capacity by the end of the year, Chief Executive Officer Nedim Cen said today on a call with analysts.

“I expect competition to remain tough in the coming year with no significant changes to demand, but we will be in a much better position to deal with it,” Cen said in a statement. Q-Cells expects higher sales in the coming months and targets as much as 350 million euros in cash by year-end, he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.net; Marc Roca in London at mroca6@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net.