Chinese PV Industry Brief: Jinko Power and Trina Solar go public, profit growth for Daqo, and new dates for SNEC

Jinko Power has moved forward with plans to list shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, while Trina Solar said that the China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved its application for its own initial public offering. Polysilicon producer Daqo, meanwhile, reported solid first-quarter results, and the organizer of the SNEC solar show changed the exhibition’s dates and location once again.

May 22, 2020 Vincent Shaw, Max Hall and Emiliano Bellini

Trina stock will be traded on the Shanghai exchange.

Image: Trina Solar

Jinko Power, the solar development unit of JinkoSolar, said on Tuesday that it has applied to list shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange under the trading code 601778. It expects to raise RMB2.5 billion ($350.4 million) in its initial public offering. It will use the proceeds to invest in the distributed-generation PV segment and partially pay back bank loans. The company is now competing as part of a consortium with French energy giant EDF in a 1.5 GW solar tender that Emirates Water and Electricity Co. launched in July. The two companies offered what is still the lowest solar bid ever at AED0.0497/kWh ($0.013533).

Trina Solar said on Wednesday that its IPO application has been approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). It aims to trade on the Shanghai Stock Exchange under the trading code 688599. It will issue 310.2 million shares, to account for 15.0% of its total post-issuance share capital, which is 2.068 billion shares. It will launch its IPO on May 29.

Daqo has released its financial results for the first quarter. It posted revenue of $168.8 million, up considerably from $81.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Its operating income increased year-on-year from $9.1 million to $45.1 million, while its net profit rose from $6.6 million to $33.2 million. Polysilicon sales grew from 8,450 metric tons in the first quarter of 2019 to 19,101 MT in the January-March period of this year. Production costs for polysilicon, meanwhile, fell year-on-year from $7.42/kg to $5.86/kg. “Despite the challenging market environment, we successfully expanded our gross margin by further optimizing our cost structure during the quarter,” said Daqo CEO Longgen Zhang. “Gross margin during the quarter was 33.5% compared with 29.5% in the fourth quarter of 2019.” The manufacturer expects to produce 15,500 to 16,500 MT of polysilicon in the second quarter and between 73,000 to 75,000 MT for the full fiscal year.

SNEC PV Power Expo will now be held from Aug. 7 to Aug. 10, with the location moving to the Shanghai New International Expo Center in the city's Pudong district. Last week the organizers said that the fair would be held from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. The annual trade show, which is usually held in April, has been rescheduled due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Huizhou EVE Energy, a lithium battery manufacturer listed on the Shenzhen Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), said on Wednesday that it has secured a deal to supply lithium iron phosphate batteries to China Mobile for the construction of 5G base stations. As one of the telecom company's main suppliers, Huizhou EVE Energy won 13.04% of the total bid.

Xinte Energy, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of TBEA, has announced that its TBEA Xinjiang New Energy unit it has been hit with a RMB600 million-plus ($84.5 million) claim from Huaxia Financial Leasing over an alleged failure to deliver equipment for a 99 MW wind farm. TBEA Xinjiang claims the project was delayed because of mistakes made by developer Xuyi High Drive Wind Power.

Longi revealed this week that it provided solar panels for a 100 MW floating PV project that Chinese PV developer Panda Green Energy Group has built in a coal mining area in Xinji, Anhui province. The project, which integrates the image of a giant panda into its design – just like many of Panda Green's other solar parks – features inverters provided by China's Sungrow. The plant was commissioned at the end of 2018.

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