Financial results for Chinese solar PV production company JinkoSolar have revealed that the company performed extremely strongly throughout 2013, ending the year on a high with a robust fourth quarter.
The undisputed company highlight for 2013 was the total volume of solar product shipments, which reached a record high of 1,933.1 MW. Of this figure, 1.7 GW accounted for the shipment of solar modules, 54.8 MW for silicon wafers, and 113.2 MW for solar cells, meaning the company shipped 62.7% more equipment in 2013 than in the previous year. In 2012, JinkSolar shipped just 1.18 GW of solar products.
Additional highlights for the year included a 47.6% rise in total revenues. JinkoSolar generated $1.17 billion from its global dealings in 2013, up from $600 million in 2012. As a result, gross margin was 20.3% last year an impressive recovery from the 4.8% gross margin endured in 2012. Although net income for the year was just $31.1 million, that figure represents a dramatic turnaround in fortunes for a company that lost $250 million in 2012.
Excellent fourth quarter
The fourth and final quarter of 2013 saw JinkoSolar extend its market share even further, the company enjoying quarter-on-quarter growth of 13% as 586.3 MW of solar products were shipped, up from 518.9 MW in the third quarter of 2013. When compared to Q4 2012, that performance is even more impressive just 301.9 MW of solar products were shipped in the final quarter of 2012 meaning, in just 12 months, JinkoSolar had increased its market performance by 94.3%.
As of the end of 2013, JinkoSolar had connected approximately 213 MW of solar PV projects to the grid, having only entered the PV development market in 2012. JinkoSolar ended the year with $141 million in cash and cash equivalents, generating an operating margin for the full year of 9.1% – up from a negative 25.7% in 2012. The company now possesses an in-house annual production capacity for solar modules of 2 GW.
JinkoSolar's CEO, Kangping Chen, was upbeat about the company's financial health and market performance. "Having recorded our third-straight quarter of profitability, I am proud to report another strong performance as we continue to expand our manufacturing and downstream businesses," he said. "From the third quarter we delivered on our promise to achieve net profitability for the entire year. We closed out 2013 on a stronger footing by further cutting costs and improving gross margins for the fourth quarter to an industry-leading 24.7%.
"With total product shipments for the year reaching an all-time high of approximately 2 GW, and a revenue stream from our rapidly expanding downstream business, we have only increased our ambitions."
Chen revealed that JinkoSolar will be devoting a substantial amount of resources towards the companys transition into becoming a one-stop energy solution provider. "We currently have a total pipeline of more than 700 MW in utility scale and more than 400 MW in distributed systems," said the CEO. "We are in a unique position to directly benefit from the expected growth in the rapidly expanding downstream project business that has only just begun to show potential."
The CEO also announced the establishment of JinkoSolar's new R&D center, which employs 100 people and is aiming to continue to push the companys innovation sector, creating next-gen high efficiency cells, super PID-free technology and smart modules the latter of which were recently unveiled at last week's PV Expo Tokyo.
Plans are also afoot to further widen JinkoSolar's global presence, with Chen adding that the company hopes to make its "geographic mix more balanced and sustainable."
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