UPDATE 2-China Sunergy Q4 above Street; cuts production outlook

(Recasts, adds details, analyst comment, share movement)

By Hezron Selvi

BANGALORE, March 26 (Reuters) - Solar cell maker China Sunergy Co Ltd (CSUN.O: Quote, Profile, Research) posted better-than-expected quarterly results driven by higher prices and sales of high efficiency cells, but cut its production outlook for 2008 due to technology upgradation and bad weather.

For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of $2.3 million, or 6 cents per American depository share (ADS), compared with a net loss of $38.0 million, or $2.18 per ADS, a year earlier.

Sales rose 1 percent to $71.5 million.

Analysts on average were expecting the company to post a loss of 10 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $61.0 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

"Q4 results were better than expected, thanks to higher output of new, higher efficiency cells, which should also aid Q1 average selling price and gross margin," analyst Robert Stone of Cowen & Co wrote in a research note.

Total gross margin - a key measure of cost control - more than tripled sequentially, driven by higher average selling prices for core cells.

Blended average selling price (ASP) for the fourth quarter rose about 6 percent sequentially to $3.02 per watt, due to strong product demand and the strengthening of the Chinese currency, the company said in a statement.