Xi´an (China) 30th April - On April 30, 2024, LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "LONGi "), a global leader in solar technology, officially released its performance report for the year 2023. The company achieved a revenue of 129.498 billion yuan, continuing to maintain a scale of a hundred billion in revenue. Based on the judgment of risks during the period of rapid changes in technology routes, the company officially announced last year that it would use BC (Back-Contact) technology route to achieve production line renewal; merging the industry's commonality of being affected by cyclical factors, the company adjusted the performance of the period slightly declined.
The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the whole year was 10.751 billion yuan, of which the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 10.834 billion yuan; the comprehensive gross margin was 18.26%, and the return on weighted average net assets was 16.20%.
Asset impairment affects short-term performance, taking a deep crouch to build strength for facing the new cycle
In 2023, China's photovoltaic industry continued to expand, with production of key manufacturing links such as polysilicon, silicon wafers, cells, and modules all experiencing year-on-year growth of over 64%, and the total industry output value exceeding 1.75 trillion yuan. However, the company's short-term performance was affected by the cyclical downturn in the industry's industrial chain value and the replacement of old and new production capacities.
By the end of 2023, the company's self-owned silicon wafer production capacity reached 170 GW, the cell production capacity reached 80 GW, and the module production capacity reached 120 GW. In 2023, the company conducted impairment tests on assets showing signs of impairment and proposed to set aside an impairment provision of 7 billion yuan, which mainly includes inventory write-down provisions of 5.2 billion yuan and fixed asset impairment provisions of 1.6 billion yuan. At the same time, affected by the continuous decline in product prices at various stages of the photovoltaic industry chain, the company's provisions for inventory and other assets increased accordingly.
In the first quarter of 2024, the company achieved shipments of 26.74 GW of monocrystalline silicon wafers (12.43 GW sold externally), a year-on-year increase of 12.26%; achieved 1.51 GW of monocrystalline cells external sales; achieved 12.89 GW of monocrystalline module shipments (12.84 GW sold externally), a year-on-year increase of 16.55%, and achieved a revenue of 17.674 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.59%. LONGi's chairman, Zhong Baoshen, stated that the company's overall business for the year will show a trend of being lower in the first half and higher in the second half, with a gradual increase quarter by quarter. LONGi's overall shipment growth rate for the year will not be lower than the industry average, and the product shipment volume will continue to grow.
During the reporting period, facing a market environment where new market opportunities and supply and demand pressures coexist, LONGi maintained a high intensity of R&D investment, driving product cost reduction and efficiency improvement through innovation, and technological upgrades and iterations, to build the company's differentiated competitive advantages. From the listing in 2012 to the end of 2023, the company has accumulated R&D investment of more than 27 billion yuan, and has obtained 2879 patents of various types. The R&D investment for the whole year of 2023 was 7.721 billion yuan, accounting for 5.96% of the revenue.
The pace of commercializing scientific and technological achievements accelerates, with new products anchoring the source of value growth
Nowadays, the products and services provided by various solar manufacturers are becoming increasingly homogenized, with technological upgrades largely based on the same technical direction and platform. There is no significant difference between the products of different companies, leading to fierce price competition. The industry has reached a consensus that advanced production capacity will never be excessive.
The fruit of three years of dedicated research and development, LONGi released the TaiRay silicon wafer product in March 28, 2024. It has rare advantages such as full platform support, high resistance concentration, and excellent impurity absorption effects, achieving a breakthrough in the substantial innovation of silicon wafers that has not been seen in nearly a decade, and is expected to go into mass production in the second quarter of this year. The 2023 Annual Report shows that the company has successfully developed the HPBC 2.0 product, which can achieve a module power that is more than 5% higher than that of the same specification TOPCon modules, increasing the power generation of the power station over its entire life cycle by 6.5% to 8%. The plan is to gradually introduce mass production in the second half of 2024. Chairman Zhong Baoshen once stated that the company is accelerating the transformation of PERC production capacity, and the product will be in a very significant leading position by 2025.
Leading companies have a significantly higher risk resistance capability than second and third-tier companies. In 2023, after LONGi officially announced the BC (Back-Contact) technology route, the product has been highly recognized globally. Only half a year after stable mass production, the monthly shipment scale exceeded 2GW. Adhering to the principle of leading and expanding production with advanced technology, LONGi has accelerated the pace of commercializing scientific and technological achievements, and the advanced production capacity with differentiated competitive strength is worth looking forward to. Over the next three years, the company is expected to achieve an annual production capacity of 200 GW for monocrystalline silicon wafers, of which the "TaiRay" silicon wafer production capacity will account for more than 80%; the annual production capacity for BC (Back-Contact) cells will reach 100 GW; and the annual production capacity for monocrystalline modules will reach 150 GW.
In response to the continuous upgrading of BC (Back-Contact) technology products and the development of next-generation technology, LONGi continues to track and invest in technical routes such as TOPCon, HJT, and tandem, achieving outstanding results in the development and introduction of mass-produced cell technology, breakthroughs in the efficiency of new types of high-efficiency cells, and the development and design of new products tailored to customer needs. The company has set world records for both the back-contacted crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cell with an efficiency of 27.09% and the crystalline-silicon-perovskite tandem cell with an efficiency of 33.9%, further consolidating the company's R&D strength and cutting-edge technical reserves.
About LONGi
Founded in 2000, LONGi is committed to being the world’s leading solar technology company, focusing on customer-driven value creation for full scenario energy transformation.
Under its mission of 'making the best of solar energy to build a green world', LONGi has dedicated itself to technology innovation and established five business sectors, covering mono silicon wafers cells and modules, commercial & industrial distributed solar solutions, green energy solutions and hydrogen equipment. The company has honed its capabilities to provide green energy and has more recently, also embraced green hydrogen products and solutions to support global zero carbon development. www.longi.com