Jinko profits surge in 2019

Chinese module manufacturer Jinko Solar posted an 18.8% revenue increase in fiscal 2019 as its net profit more than doubled to CNY 898.7 million, from CNY 406.5 million a year earlier.

Module shipments jumped 25.6% year on year to 14.3 GW, as sales edged up to CNY 29.75 billion in the 12 months to the end of December, from CNY 25.04 billion in 2018. The company's operating results also improved considerably from CNY 644.9 million in 2018 to CNY 1.73 billion, while its gross margin climbed from 14% to 18.3%.

“The efficient execution of our strategy throughout the second half of the year allowed us to rapidly transition our operations and production facilities from poly to mono while steadily increasing the proportion of products produced through our fully integrated manufacturing process,” said Jinko Solar CEO Kangping Chen.

Quarterly performance

Jinko said it shipped 4.5 GW of modules in the fourth quarter, up 25% from the same quarter a year earlier. Quarterly revenue came in at CNY 9.53 billion, up 23.4% from the final three months of 2018.

“We are benefitting from the rapid expansion of our mono wafer production capacity during the second half of 2019 and our industry-leading integrated cost structure,” Chen said. “[This] has ideally positioned us to drive growth throughout full year 2020 where we expect solar module shipments to increase by approximately 35%.”

COVID-19 outbreak

Jinko said the coronavirus outbreak has affected supplies of certain raw materials in the first quarter of 2020. That in turn has prompted it to postpone some module shipments to the second quarter.

“Our supply chain and logistics were temporarily affected by the outbreak early in the first quarter of 2020 but has improved significantly. Our current capacity utilization rate has already recovered to 100%,” Chen explained.

The company claims its capacity expansion plans for 2020 will not be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Optimistic outlook

The company expects PV module shipments to range between 18 GW and 20 GW this year, with shipments expected to fall between 3.4 GW and 3.7 GW in the first quarter. “We estimate that approximately 400 MW to 500 MW of our solar module shipments in the first quarter will be postponed to the second quarter, causing shipments in the second quarter to increase significantly,” the company said.

Jinko’s module capacity is expected to grow from 16 GW at the end of December 2019 to 24 GW by the end of this year. Cell capacity is expected to rise from 11.5 GW to 19 GW by the end of this year, while its wafer output will likely edge up from 10.6 GW to 11 GW.