JinkoSolar posts significant shipment growth in Q3

Chinese vertically integrated solar module manufacturer JinkoSolar saw an increase in revenue, shipments and profits in the third quarter of 2018.

The company reports that its turnover climbed 4.3% from 6.42 billion CNY in the third quarter of last year to 6.69 billion CNY (US$974.8 million) in the latest quarter, with total shipments growing 24.4% year-on-year from 2,374 MW to 2,953 MW. The company said that the revenue growth was essentially due to the considerable increase in shipments. Even those these were partially offset by a decline in the average selling price of solar modules in the period.

Gross margin improved from 12% in the third quarter of 2017 to 14% in the same period of this year, while operating results grew year-on-year from 91.9 million CNY to 188 million CNY ($27.4 million). Meanwhile, net profit also rose from 11.3 million CNY to 189.1 million CNY ($27.5 million).

“Overseas module shipments accounted for almost 80% of total shipments during the quarter, which offset the impact of softened demand domestically,” said Jinko CEO Kangping Chen. “Recent positive changes from the policy side are providing support for a possible rebound in Chinese demand next year, especially possible policies discussed during the Solar Industry symposium held by the NEA at the beginning of November – which are expected to support the smooth transition from a policy-driven industry to a grid parity driven one,” Chen continued, adding that demand is expected to grow again in China next year.

The company also said it had moved forward with improving wafer efficiency and reducing both oxygen content and light induced degradation, while also improving the efficiency of its N type HOT cell and the structure of the P type PERC cell. “The Cheetah series modules are selling rapidly with the 72-piece mono PERC Cheetah module hitting above 400W in efficiency during mass production,” it said.

Looking to the future, Jinko has maintained almost unchanged its guidance for full fiscal year 2018, with the previous outlook of shipments in the amount of 11.5 GW to 12 GW being slightly lowered now to 11.5 GW to 1.8 GW. “We are now ideally positioned with our order book in Q4 almost full from growing overseas markets and our products being in short supply,” the company stressed. As for the fourth quarter, Jinko expects to ship between 3.7 GW and 4 GW of panels.