Xinyi Solar’s net profit soars 65% in 2016

Group revenue rose 26.5% on the year to HK$6,007.1 million, as sales of photovoltaic glass products — including ultra-clear PV raw glass and ultra-clear PV processed glass — jumped 82.3% on the year to HK$4,276.5 million.

Sales of electricity from Xinyi Solar’s 14 PV projects rose from HK$313.0 million to HK$1,049.8 million.

“(We have) not encountered any curtailment in electricity generation,” it said, noting that all of its PV projects are located in provinces such as Anhui, Hubei, Henan and Fujian, where electricity demand is high.

However, it said that it continued to experience delays in collecting project subsidies from the government throughout the year.

The company — based in Wuhu, Anhui province — was operating 1.46GW of grid-connected solar capacity by the end of December, up from 610 MW a year earlier.

Its operational PV generation portfolio — which accounted for 17.5% of total group revenue — expanded by 490 MW in the second half of 2016, according to the group’s audited consolidated results.

Sales of PV glass accounted for 71.2% of its revenue, with exports accounting for just 14.8% of total sales in 2016. Its shipments of PV glass to the US and Japanese markets fell, while its sales to the Chinese market increased.

Last month, the group opened a new ultra-clear PV raw glass production line — with melting capacity of 1,000 tons per day — in Wuhu.

Income from Xinyi Solar's EPC business accounted for 11.3% of total revenue, at HK$680.7 million.

That included HK$515.7 million from residential projects in Anhui province, HK$127.8 million from a 100MW utility-scale array in Anhui that it holds a 50% stake in, while HK$37.2 million came from other, miscellaneous projects.

“EPC services, though not a key profit contributor to the group, can help it to exploit (the) potential of the distributed generation market and broaden its presence in the PV downstream market,” the company said.

Last April, it purchased a 60% stake in Canadian PV installer Polaron Solartech for roughly HK$8.96 million. It said that the investment will help it to gain more solar development experience, particularly with distributed-generation projects.

Xinyi Solar finished its first floating solar array — a 20 MW installation in Huainan, Anhui province — last April. In October, it won a tender to build another 150 MW floating project in Anhui.

The company —  which started developing PV projects more than two years ago — aims to complete 600 to 800 MW of solar capacity in 2017.

It is preparing to spin off its development business, but it has not said when it will do so.