Shanghai-based solar module manufacturer JA Solar boasted a strong second quarter, with shipments and revenue up 50% year-over-year, while still missing the company’s prescribed guidance for the quarter.
JA Solar published its 2016 second quarter earnings, which saw the company ship a total of 1,380 MW of solar products — 1,229.3 MW of solar modules and cells to external customers, and 151.5 MW of modules to JA Solar’s own downstream projects. But despite external shipments being up 55.5% year-over-year, and up 18.4% on the first quarter of the year, they were still short of the company’s projected guidance given last quarter.
Net revenue for the company was RMB 4.1 billion ($619 million), an increase of 51.9% year-over-year, and 18.6% sequentially. Gross margin was 15.3%, while net income for the quarter was RMB 164.1 million ($24.7 million).
“Second quarter results were in line with our expectations, with shipments and revenue growing over 50% year-over-year,” said Mr. Baofang Jin, Chairman and CEO of JA Solar. “We are also encouraged by our downstream project development achievements as we successfully connected approximately 250 MW of solar projects to the grid in the quarter. As expected, China was our strongest market in the quarter, driven by accelerated activity ahead of subsidy reductions that occurred this summer.”
JA Solar is predicting total cell and module shipments for the third quarter to be in the range of 1,200 MW to 1,300 MW, adding to the company’s yearly prediction of total shipments of between 5.2 GW to 5.5 GW, which includes 250 to 300 MW of shipments to JA Solar’s own downstream projects.
Looking forward, as has been mentioned repeatedly elsewhere, the Chinese solar market is expected to slow down in the second half of 2016, which could have a dramatic impact on the global solar figures. However, JA Solar is banking on its global sales to survive the next six months.
“While regulatory change should slow the domestic Chinese market in the second half of the year, we believe our balanced global footprint and flexible business model will allow us to adjust to evolving market conditions,” continued Mr. Jin.
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