China’s JA Solar Nearly Triples Net Profit in First Half as Shipments Hit a Record High

(Yicai) Aug. 31 — JA Solar Technology, the world’s second-biggest photovoltaic module supplier, almost tripled its net profit in the first six months of this year from a year ago as shipments surged to a record high.

Net profit jumped to CNY4.8 billion (USD662.8 million), the Shanghai-based solar panel maker said in its interim earnings report yesterday. Revenue widened by 43 percent to CNY40.8 billion (USD5.6 billion). The result was good as the firm predicted last month that net profit could rise to a point between CNY4.2 billion and CNY4.9 billion.

Shipments of modules totaled nearly 24 gigawatts, and overseas orders accounted for 55 percent of the total.

JA Solar will invest about CNY2.7 billion to expand its plant in Vietnam’s Bac Ninh province to make high-efficiency solar cells, it announced yesterday. The annual capacity addition will be five GW, designed to improve the firm’s positioning in every link of the industry chain in the Asian country. The project is expected to start operations in 10 months.

The company is accelerating its international expansion via vertical integration. It is building facilities in Southeast Asia and also started constructing a solar panel plant with a capacity of two GW in the United States in the first half, per the report.

The firm upgraded its target in the latest financial report, expecting to have an annual capacity of 95GW of solar panels by year-end, instead of the 80 GW goal predicted in the 2022 report released in March. A high level of self-sufficiency is expected to be maintained as the firm’s capacity of solar wafers and cells should equal 90 percent of the updated figure of modules, according to the interim report.

The tripled net profit failed to boost JA Solar’s share price today. Its Shenzhen-listed equity [SHE: 002459] closed the day down 2.5 percent at CNY27.83 (USD3.80). JA Solar’s stock price has lost over half of its value since last July to trade close to a two-year low as investors are concerned about overcapacity in the PV sector, which has caused domestic solar power giants’ shares to slump this year.

Story : TANG SHIHUA

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