The world's leading solar wafer, cell and module manufacturer LONGi Green Energy Technology aims to ship between 90 GW and 100 GW of cells and modules in 2024, after reporting a 44% annual improvement in module shipments in 2023.
The 67.52 GW module shipments in 2023 grew from 46.76 GW in 2022. Last year, external sales of modules were 66.44 GW. Monocrystalline silicon wafer shipments totaled 125.42 GW and 5.90 GW of monocrystalline cells.
The manufacturer admits to being affected by the severe supply and demand imbalance in the market that led to a drop in PV product prices during the year. It says bidding prices for modules fell below RMB 1.00/W in Q4/2023.
Its net profit for 2023 declined 27.4% annually to RMB 10.75 billion after it set aside an impairment provision of RMB 7 billion. In 2023, LONGi achieved a revenue of RMB 129.49 billion, at par with RMB 129 billion revenues in 2022. Gross margin improved by 2.88% to 18.26%.
During the 1st quarter of 2024, LONGi shipped 26.74 GW of monocrystalline silicon, wafers representing an annual increase of 12.26%, while selling 1.51 GW of monocrystalline cells.
LONGi's total solar module shipments during Q1 this year increased by 16.55% Year-over-Year (YoY) to 12.89 GW. Out of these, 12.84 GW were sold externally.
Its quarterly revenues were RMB 17.67 billion, while it recorded a net loss of -$2.35 billion which it says was impacted by inventory impairment.
Out of the total 2023 revenues, LONGi spent 5.96% on R&D efforts, carrying out upgrades to its back contact (BC) technology among others. The company's 2.8 GW Malaysia module fab and 3.35 GW Vietnam cell factories are now online while the 6.6 GW Malaysia silicon ingot project progresses as scheduled.
It has also started production at the 5 GW US module joint venture factory in Q1/2024 (see LONGi Partners For 5 GW US Solar Module Fab).
LONGi Chairman Zhong Baoshen believes that as the market clears out outdated capacities, the performance of companies with leading products will gradually recover. The company's overall business for the year will show a trend of being lower in the beginning and higher towards the end, with a sequential increase each quarter, he added.
Over the next 3 years, it will target to achieve an annual production capacity of 200 GW for monocrystalline silicon wafers. Its TaiRui silicon wafers will account for over 80% of this capacity. The company claims its TaiRui wafers are compatible with all current crystalline silicon cell technologies. It also provides good resistivity uniformity and impurity absorption. Mass production of these wafers will begin in Q2/2024.
The annual capacity for BC cells will reach 100 GW and that of modules will be 150 GW. At the end of 2023, LONGi had an annual production capacity of 170 GW for wafers, 80 GW for cells and 120 GW for modules.
The Chinese manufacturer forecasts global solar PV installations in 2024 to grow by 20% annually to 470 GW from 390 GW in 2023 when China, Europe and the US will be the top 3 consumers.
It guides for its wafer shipments in 2024 to grow to around 135 GW, while solar cells and modules will rise to between 90 GW and 100 GW.
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