Jinko Solar To Add More Manufacturing Capacity In Light Of Increased Demand
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Chinese solar PV manufacturing giant Jinko Solar announced its first quarter 2019 financial results last week, which revealed the company’s first-quarter shipments jumped 50.7%, leading in part to a decision to again expand its manufacturing capacity.
Jinko Solar shipped a total of 3,037 megawatts (MW) of solar modules in the first quarter, a decrease of 16.1% over the 3,618 MW shipped in the fourth quarter of 2018 but a mammoth 50.7% increase on the 2,015 MW shipped in the first quarter of 2018 — clearly showing the increase in demand that continues to bolster the industry, with the normally slow first quarter only narrowly missing the normally blockbuster fourth quarter shipping figures.
Total revenues for the quarter amounted to RMB 5.82 billion (US$867.5 million), a decrease of 24.6% from the fourth quarter of 2018 but an increase of 27.5% from the first quarter of 2018. Gross margin for the quarter was 16.6% compared with 14.7% in the fourth quarter of 2018 and 14.4% in the first quarter of 2018, and income from operations of RMB235.7 million (US$35.1 million), compared with RMB237.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 and RMB125.0 million in the first quarter of 2018. Net income attributable to shareholders was was RMB40.2 million (US$6.0 million) in the first quarter of 2019, compared with RMB114.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 and RMB3.6 million in the first quarter of 2018, also shown as RMB1.016 (US$0.152) per share in the first quarter of 2019.
“We started the year strongly as we continue diversifying our global distribution network and expanding our market share in key overseas markets,” explained Kangping Chen, JinkoSolar’s Chief Executive Officer.
“We continue to see strong demand from overseas markets and have secured the vast majority of our order book for the rest of the year. The global solar market continues to generate rapid and sustainable growth momentum as grid parity approaches, in particular for our high-efficiency mono products which are continuously in short supply. Our global distribution network allowed us to quickly meet growing demand for our high-efficiency mono products over the past few quarters as the market transitioned. We are accelerating the expansion of our high-efficiency mono production capacity and estimate they will account for over 60% of our total shipments for the year.”
By year’s end, Jinko Solar expects its annual silicon wafer, solar cell, and solar module production capacity will reach 15 gigawatts (GW), 10 GW, and 16 GW respectively — this last is a 1 GW expansion on previously-announced plans.
The company also boasted raising “US$160 million last month in a follow-on offering of ADSs and concurrent private placement of convertible senior notes, which is being deployed to expand our mono wafer and PERC cell capacities,” according to Chen, who continued:
“Our new 5 GW mono wafer production facility in Leshan, Sichuan Province began trial production this month and will ramp up to full capacity by the fourth quarter of this year. This new production facility will serve as a benchmark for the industry with its cutting-edge technology and industry-leading cost structure. The additional mono wafer capacity will allow us to significantly increase the proportion of self-produced high-efficiency products and improve overall profitability.”
Featured photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica
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