Chinese vertically integrated solar PV company JinkoSolar Holding exited 2021 with its global shipments of 25.24 GW, with Q4/2021 contributing 9.69 GW, as the company announced substantial manufacturing capacity expansion.
For Q4/2021, revenues went up 91.2% QoQ and 73.9% YoY to $2.57 billion thanks to increase in shipment of modules mainly in China, earning it gross profit of $414.9 million that increased 104% sequentially and 75.5% annually. Gross margin of 16.1% was almost at the same level as 16.0% a year back (see JinkoSolar Shipped 18.8 GW Solar Modules In 2020).
On annual basis, its total revenues increased 16.2% to $6.41 billion, with gross profit of $1.04 billion that went up 7.9% YoY and gross margin that declined to 16.3% compared to 17.6% in the previous year.
Philip Shen of Roth Capital Partners pointed out that with virtually no shipments to the US in Q4/2021 and 'likely' in Q1/2022, 'this market represents a key area of weakness' for the company.
Manufacturing
JinkoSolar has offered a robust manufacturing capacity expansion target for 2022, planning to grow its mono wafer capacity from 32.5 GW at the end of 2021 to 50 GW at the end of 2022. From 24 GW of PERC and N-type cell capacity where the latter's share was minuscule, the company aims to grow it to 40 GW in all comprising 16.9 GW of N-type cells. Solar module capacity will grow from 45 GW to 60 GW.
The company said it has brought online around 16 GW of cell production capacity in Q1/2022, and is steadily ramping up.
Recently, its principal operating subsidiary Jiangxi Jinko said it will invest in 30 GW ingots/wafers, 24 GW modules and 100,000 ton aluminum frame projects in China (see JinkoSolar's Major Capacity Expansion Plans).
Guidance
Without sharing any revenue or gross margin guidance as is the norm for the company usually, this time JinkoSolar has just provided an outlook for its shipments. For Q1/2022, it expects to ship between 7.5 GW to 8.0 GW and for 2022 the forecast is for between 35 GW to 40 GW, including cells, wafers and modules.
The module supplier remains heavily invested in the distribution generation segment, in line with its key market China's policy, saying that its proportion shipment to this segment will reach around 40% in 2022.
JinkoSolar participated in TaiyangNews' Special Focus Webinar on TOPCon solar modules when the company's Global Product Manager Leo Cong said it will achieve 10 GW annual production capacity of its n-type Tiger Neo TOPCon solar modules by the end of 2022 (see TaiyangNews Special Focus Webinar On TopCon).