Chinese solar module manufacturer Jinko Solar has reported an impressive start to 2016, and is now the world’s leading solar module supplier.
Earlier this year, Jinko Solar reported significant improvements in its financials for 2015, and was at the time the world’s third largest supplier of solar PV modules. Just last week, competitor Trina Solar reported total module shipments for the quarter of 1,423.3 MW, holding the company as the world’s leading solar manufacturer. However, in publishing its own first quarter financial results, Jinko Solar has now usurped that position, shipping 1,600 MW of solar modules in the first quarter, of which 166 were used in the company’s own downstream projects. As with Trina Solar, Jinko Solar’s shipping numbers were down on the preceding fourth quarter (which was a global record-setter), but were up 102.7% from the same quarter a year earlier.
“We began the year very strongly with total module shipments reaching 1,600 MW, ranking us as the biggest module supplier among our peers during the first quarter,” said Mr. Kangping Chen, JinkoSolar’s Chief Executive Officer.
Total revenue for Jinko Solar in the first quarter was RMB5.47 billion ($847.8 million), down 10% on Q4’15 but up 98.8% on Q1’15, and net income was RMB313.3 million ($48.6 million) — up a staggering 513% on the first quarter in 2015 — reflecting comparable growth in the global solar industry as a whole.
“Global solar demand continues to grow as costs go down,” said Mr. Chen. “China remains our biggest market with a number of big orders continuing to come in, a trend we believe will continue in the second quarter. Our market share in the US continued to expand. Although the ITC extension resulted in some projects being postponed, we are confident in our ability to hit our shipment targets to the US for the year with our overseas production facility providing extra flexibility and higher margins. The increasing recognition of our brand name is also generating great opportunities in exciting emerging markets such as Chile, Thailand and India.”
The company is expecting a similarly impressive shipping figure of 1.6 GW to 1.7 GW, and estimating total solar module shipments for the year 2016 to be in the range of 6 GW to 6.5 GW.
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