Yingli Green Energy (NYSE:YGE) used to be the world's leading manufacturer of solar panels until it was displaced by its Chinese competitorTrina Solar (NYSE:TSL) in 2014. But Yingli retained the second spot, ahead ofJinkoSolar (NYSE:JKS), also Chinese, Canadian Solar (NASDAQ:CSIQ) and Japan's Sharp Corp (OTCPK:SHCAY). While these solar stocks have been under pressure due to the larger macro headwinds, Yingli Green Energy has a much bigger problem on its hand. The Baoding, China based Yingli, however, has done a great job in terms of improving its margins and shipments. During the third quarter, the company's total PV shipments clocked in at 903.4MW. This was in-line with the company's guidance and shows improvement from 887.9MW in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Yingli's gross margins came in at a strong 20.9% - this was considerably higher than 15.6% in the second quarter and 13.7% in the same quarter last year. Read more