UPDATE 2-Suntech posts loss as solar market suffers

* Q4 loss of $0.42/ADS vs year-ago profit of $0.29/ADS

* Q4 adjusted loss $0.29/ADS, missing Wall St estimate

* Shares down less than 1 percent

NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Chinese solar company Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd (STP.N) posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday as prices and orders for its clean power products fell sharply.

Solar power companies have suffered in recent weeks as demand for new systems evaporated amid the banking crisis that has shut off the flow of new financing to the industry.

Also squeezing profit margins for many companies is the jump in the supply of solar modules on the market and the steep drop in the value of the euro -- the currency used to buy the vast majority of systems.

Suntech, one of the world's largest makers of the photovoltaic modules that turn sunlight into electricity, said it was seeking to triple its sales in the United States to 120 megawatts in 2009.

The United States, which on Tuesday enacted a measure that could help revive demand for solar as part of the $787 billion stimulus package, is expected to see total demand of between 400 to 700 megawatts this year, the company said.

That is still far smaller than the European market, where Suntech shipped about 70 percent of its products in 2008, and earnings suffered as the euro tumbled sharply against the U.S. dollar.

Suntech Chief Executive Zhengrong Shi said the euro weakness had accounted for 8 percentage points of the 15 percent decline in the average selling prices for solar modules for the company during the fourth quarter from the third quarter.

For the first quarter, those average selling prices are likely to drop about 10 percent from the fourth quarter.

Still, declines in the cost of silicon, the key material used to make solar modules, will outpace the decline in selling price and help support margins, Shi said.

For the fourth quarter, the company posted a loss of $65.9 million, or 42 cents per American depositary share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $50.6 million, or 29 cents per ADS.

Excluding one-time charges but including stock-based compensation, the company posted a loss of 29 cents per ADS, slightly wider than the analysts' forecast for a loss of 27 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 4.2 percent to $414.4 million, Suntech said.

Last month, Suntech raised its fourth-quarter revenue outlook to between $405 million and $420 million.

At the time, the company also said it had cut 800 jobs, or 8 percent of its staff, in the fourth quarter because of the weak economy.

Earlier this week, Chinese solar company Trina Solar Ltd (TSL.N) warned that its margins would suffer due to a charge to write down the value of its silicon inventory, while rival Canadian Solar Inc (CSIQ.O) said it would ship fewer solar cells in 2009 than it originally forecast.

Shares of Suntech, which have slumped nearly 30 percent since the end of 2008, were down 7 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $9.07 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Matt Daily and Euan Rocha; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Lisa Von Ahn)