Chinese PV Industry Brief: Trina shipped 10.5 GW of modules in H1

Module manufacturer Trina Solar released on Tuesday its financial report for H1 2021. During the period, the company achieved revenue of RMB20.2 billion ($3.13 billion), which represents a 61% year-on-year increase. Net profit grew by 43% year on year to RMB706 million. Total PV module shipments in the first six months of the year totaled 10.5 GW, with more than 5 GW of that based on the 210mm wafer. The company also built 1.5 GW of solar PV plants in the first half of 2021. Trina is expanding production capacities of major chains, including solar cells and PV modules mainly using large-sized 210mm wafers. The company expects cell and module capacities of 35 GW and 50 GW to be reached by the end of 2021. Products based on the 210mm wafer will account for around 70% of all of the company's output.

State-owned solar manufacturer and project developer China Shuifa Singyes said high polysilicon prices and Covid restrictions had resulted in a drop in revenue generated by its project operations in the first half year to RMB59.4 million ($9.17 million) from RMB481 million ($74.3 million) in the same period a year ago. Despite total first-half revenue rising from RMB2.07 billion ($320 million) to RMB2.33 billion ($360 million) year-on year, China Shuifa saw profits attributable to its owners fall to RMB96.5 million ($14.9 million) from RMB228 million 12 months earlier.  The difference was mainly down to last year’s numbers benefiting from a RMB210 million ($32.4 million) uplift from a repurchase of senior notes, the company revealed in Wednesday’s first-half update. China Shuifa said its cash levels had fallen from RMB900 million ($139 million) to RMB436 million ($67.3 million), year on year, and said RMB100 million ($15.4 million) of its accounts had been sealed by a court in connection with a ruling made in June related to a quality dispute with a customer. Both parties last month lodged appeals against the decision. pv magazine reported in March that the company would have to pay state-owned parent Shuifa $12.7 million by Friday, and a further $213 million by the end of the year.

China-based power transmission and distribution equipment provider Chint Group said the combined capacity of its own PV power plants reached 6.54 GW at the end of June. The capacity comes from 1,522.7 MW of centralized solar PV plants spread across in 14 provinces and 5,024.8 MW of distributed solar PV in 19 provinces. Total revenue from sales of electricity in H1 achieved RMB2.03 billion, around $315 million. Unlike many other private companies which suffered from the central government's subsidy deficit, Chint did a lot of reverse M&A of high-quality PV plant assets in the past several years, becoming one of the largest private owners of solar PV farms.