Chinese PV Industry Brief: Huawei and Sineng secure big inverter orders

Chinese inverter manufacturers Huawei and Sineng were the only winners of a 5.5 GW inverter procurement tender held by Chinese state-owned mining and energy company China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy). Through the bidding process, Huawei secured orders for a total of 4.4 GW of string inverters and Sineng for 1.1 GW of central inverters.

Polysilicon supplier and solar cell maker Tongwei announced its new solar cell prices for September. Overall, all the prices for its monocrystalline PV products were raised, except for the 158.75 mm products, which remained flat at CNY 1.12 ($0.17) per watt. The manufacturer priced its PERC 166 mm (M6) cell at CNY 1.06 per watt, with an increase of CNY 0.03, and its PERC 210 mm (M12) cells at CNY 1.04 per watt, with an increase of CNY 0.02. Furthermore, the company increased the price of its PERC 210 mm cells by 2% to CNY 1.02 per watt. The price of polycrystalline cells remained flat at CNY 0.73 per watt.

Former PV manufacturer Comtec Solar on Tuesday announced it is open to offers for its idled Shanghai and Hainan factories as it focuses on rooftop PV arrays and the production of battery storage products. The company reported a net loss of CNY 19.5 million ($3.02 million) in its first-half figures – down from CNY 31.2 million ($4.83 million) 12 months earlier, and the latest reversal included a CNY 2.96 million ($458,000) hit on written-off plant and CNY 3.34 million ($517,000) from the deregistration of subsidiaries, plus depreciation of CNY 3.4 million ($528,196) from its upstream solar manufacturing equipment. Revenue was up, year on year, from CNY 28.5 million ($4.4 million) in the first half of last year to CNY 50.3 million ($7.78 million), with CNY 42.3 million ($6.54 million) generated from storage products, CNY 4.34 million ($674,080) from sales of electricity, and CNY 3.72 million ($575,000) from rooftop installations. Comtec reported net current liabilities of CNY 275 million ($42.5 million) at the end of June, and net total liabilities of CNY 81 million ($12.5 million), with only CNY 5.53 million ($858,243) in the bank at the end of the first half. However, John Yi Zhang, the founder and de facto head of the company since the resignation of former CEO Zhang Zhen in January, and shareholder Dai Ji have committed to bankroll the business.

JSG, the Zhejiang-based China semiconductor material manufacturing equipment maker, announced it will sell several crystal growing furnaces to Ningxia Zhonghuan, a subsidiary of Zhonghuan Semiconductor, for CNY 6.1 billion ($947 million). The equipment will be delivered starting from November. The order is likely linked to the 50 GW wafer manufacturing facility that Zhonghuan Semiconductor is building in the city of Yinchuan, the provincial capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Module maker Risen Energy announced on Friday that its president and chairman of the board, Xien Jian, has resigned. Sun Yuemao has been chosen as the next president by the company's board.