- Tongwei Solar shipped 80.66 GW of new solar cells during 2023, including for self-use
- Its operating income declined 2.33% annually to over RMB 139 billion due to price declines in the PV industry
- By 2024-end, Tongwei expects its TNC cell production capacity to exceed 100 GW
Leading Chinese solar cell, module and silicon manufacturer Tongwei Solar has admitted to its 2023 business suffering the impact of the sharp decline in prices across the solar PV industrial chain.
Last year, it achieved an operating income of RMB 139.104 billion ($19.29 billion) with a 2.33% annual decline. The company’s net profit declined 47.25% year-on-year (YoY) to RMB 13.57 billion ($1.87 billion). However, its high-purity silicon business achieved a net profit of over RMB 45,000/ton thanks to a sharp drop in product prices in 2023.
Solar PV technology accounted for 74.34% of the company’s overall business, followed by 25.66% from agriculture and animal husbandry business verticals.
During the year, Tongwei shipped 80.66 GW of solar cells, including for self-use, reflecting an annual increase of 68.11%. The manufacturer shipped 38.72 million tons of polysilicon. Its 2023 module shipments totaled 31.11 GW.
Tongwei produced 80.83 GW of solar cells, 31.07 GW of solar modules and 38.90 million tons of polysilicon.
The Chinese manufacturer says its average production cost of high-purity silicon products dropped to less than RMB 42,000/ton.
Tongwei introduced its Tongwei N-Passivated Contact (TNC) cells in 2023 that utilize an advanced metallization technique, achieving a mass production average conversion efficiency of 26.26%. It now targets to upgrade 38 GW of existing PERC production capacity in 2024, while adding 16 GW of TNC cell production capacity at the Meishan base and 25 GW at the Shuangliu base.
By the end of 2024, Tongwei expects its TNC cell production capacity to exceed 100 GW.
Tongwei counts its total high-purity silicon production capacity to have reached 450,000 tons at the end of 2023, with that of solar cells reaching 95 GW and modules 75 GW.
Under its production capacity plan, Tongwei targets to achieve overall high-purity crystalline silicon production capacity of 800,000 tons to 1 million tons, solar cell production capacity of 130 GW to 150 GW, and module production capacity of 80 GW to 100 GW, between 2024 and 2026.
In Q1/2024, Tongwei’s revenues of RMB 19.57 billion( $2.72 billion) improved 41.13% YoY. It also reported a net loss of RMB -786.74 million ($109.20 million), turning from profit to loss compared to the same period last year.
