Chinese PV product manufacturer JinkoSolar released its unaudited financial results for FY2021Q3 on November 30. Its module shipments for the third fiscal quarter that ended this September 30 came to 4.671GW, and its combined cell and wafer shipments for the same period came to 322MW. Altogether, Jinko’s quarterly product shipments (including wafers, cells, and modules) reached 4.993GW. This figure represents a drop of 4% from the previous quarter as well as a year-on-year drop of 2.4%.
In terms of revenue and profit, Jinko generated a revenue of RMB 8.57 billion (US$1.33 billion) for the third fiscal quarter, showing an increase of 8.1% from the previous quarter and a year-on-year decline of 2.3%. However, the company’s net income for the third fiscal quarter grew massively by 193.2% from the previous quarter and 27.3 times year on year to RMB 194.2 million (US$30.1 million).
A breakdown of module shipments by cell size shows that the share of modules containing large-size cells grew rapidly from less than 20% in the first half of this year to almost 50% by September. Another highlight of the company’s latest earnings report is the strong demand from China. The country’s share of Jinko’s module shipments actually doubled from the second fiscal quarter.
Commenting on the results for the third fiscal quarter, Li Xiande, chairman and CEO of Jinko, said that his company has managed to lower production cost for cells by activating new production capacity for higher-efficiency products. This development, in turn, has offset the recent price hikes for polysilicon and other materials. However, Li noted that product shipments have been constrained by logistical issues. Delays in product deliveries have also led to deferments in sales revenue recognitions. Furthermore, the cost of transporting goods has risen. Consequently, module prices climbed to a new high in almost year in the third fiscal quarter.
Fortunately, module buyers for the most part are willing to accept higher prices due to several factors. For instance, many regions are undergoing energy transition and seeing rising electricity prices. Also, increasing financing support and favorable policies are spurring the development of new PV projects around the world. Li pointed out that the current supply crunch for polysilicon will start to ease next year. By then, installation demand is expected to pick up as well.
Regarding capacity expansion, Jinko’s new mono-Si wafer plant in Vietnam with around 7GW of annual production capacity entered operation in the first half of this year. This addition also raised the integrated production capacity for modules outside China to around 7GW. More than 7GW of new production capacity for cells was also activated in the first half of this year and became fully loaded by the third fiscal quarter. The increase in cell production capacity allowed the company to lower its cell production cost by more than 10% from the second fiscal quarter. The company projects that its annual production capacity figures for mono-Si wafers, cells (including N-type products), and modules will come to 32.5GW, 24GW, and 45GW respectively by the end of this year.
Jinko in its latest earnings report also pointed out that it has set a new world record for the fourth time in a year for the conversion efficiency rate of its N-type cells. Its large-size passivating contact cell now has a conversion efficiency rate of 25.4%. It is worth noting that Jinko has also just released a white paper on its N-type TOPCon module. The paper indicates that the company expects TOPCon to be the next-generation mainstream technology following PERC.
Looking ahead to FY2021Q4, Jinko estimates that its total product shipments for the quarter will reach 7.4-8.8GW, of which modules will account for 7-8.5GW. As for the whole 2021, the company’s total product shipments are projected to reach 22.8-24.3GW.