October 30th, 2024 – On October 30th, 2024, LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "LONGi") released its 2024 Q3 financial report. The report shows that the company achieved a revenue of CNY 58.593 billion in the first three quarters of this year. Among them, the third quarter achieved a revenue of CNY 20.064 billion, and the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company was CNY -1.261 billion, showing a clear trend of reducing losses. This indicates that the company is gradually moving out of the industry’s bottoming cycle, its profitability is continuously being repaired, and its operational efficiency is further improved.
Profitability Continues to Improve with Accelerated Return to Growth Track through Fine Management
Since 2024, affected by the continuous mismatch of supply and demand in the PV industry, products in various links of the industry have fallen into irrational price wars during the industry's reshuffling, resulting in the first industry-wide loss since 2016. LONGi strategically adjusted shipments according to market changes and actively responded to the risks of industry supply and demand mismatch. From January to September 2024, the company achieved silicon wafer shipments of 82.80GW (including 35.03GW for external sales), a year-on-year decrease of 4.22%; monocrystalline cell external sales of 4.16GW; and module shipments of 51.23GW (including 13.77GW of BC modules), a year-on-year increase of 17.70%.
Faced with a complex and changing market environment, LONGi actively strengthened cost control and reduced operating costs through precision management. In the first three quarters of this year, the company’s management expenses were CNY 2.422 billion, a decrease of 34.70% compared to CNY 3.709 billion in the first three quarters of 2022.
During the reporting period, the company adjusted its strategy, optimized product structure, and increased investment in innovative technologies and R&D to enhance the company's core competitiveness. Over the past five years, LONGi has invested more than CNY 23.5 billion in R&D.
"For twenty years, LONGi has been focused on one thing, which is to make solar power cheaper, easier to use, and safer, so that it can benefit everyone. We always focus on improving photovoltaic conversion efficiency and the safety and reliability throughout the entire life cycle," said Zhong Baoshen, Chairman of LONGi.
Since LONGi announced in September 2023 that its future technology route would be mainly BC technology, the company has continuously launched differentiated new products to meet customer needs. It is reported that before Chinese companies entered the BC technology field, the annual production of BC products was less than 1GW. However, by the first half of this year, the shipment of BC products has approached 12GW. Chinese companies have greatly promoted the industrialization of BC technology, and the all-laser technology route has become the main direction of BC technology.
At present, BC modules have been included in the domestic large-capacity centralized procurement bidding, and the high efficiency and reliability of LONGi's HPBC 2.0 products are highlighted, the product matrix for scenarios is continuously improving, and the market penetration rate of BC products is rapidly increasing. According to industry insiders, with the acceleration of domestic BC capacity replacement and the continuous deepening of supply-side reform, the price difference between high and low-end products in the future market may continue to widen.
HPBC 2.0 Products Covers All Photovoltaic Scenarios, Breaking the Homogenization Competition with the Strongest Mass Production Efficiency
Since 2021, the PV industry has expanded rapidly, and the contradiction of supply and demand mismatch has deepened, leading to a significant decline in industry chain prices and corporate operating pressure. Despite the challenges, strategic determination remains. Adhering to the business logic of not expanding production without leading, LONGi insists on not relying on homogenized scale capacity to cope with competition. Zhong Baoshen once said that all photovoltaic companies are experiencing pain in this cycle and looking for their own survival plans. No matter what business model is chosen, the market will only favor the leaders.
LONGi is committed to leading the market out of the dilemma with the industrialization of high-efficiency BC technology, relying on deep technical accumulation and advanced intelligent manufacturing advantages to achieve significant breakthroughs in high-efficiency HPBC 2.0 technology. This year, the company has successively launched Hi-MO 9 module products and Hi-MO X10 module products based on high-efficiency HPBC 2.0 cell technology, with the highest mass production power reaching 670W, more than 30W higher than the industry-leading TOPCon modules, showing excellent energy efficiency improvement, and the highest mass production efficiency reaching 24.8%, holding the highest mass production efficiency record in the world's module.
It is reported that under the same area, the power generation of HPBC 2.0 products is 6% higher than that of TOPCon, and the increase in revenue brought by power generation means that the pre-tax profit can be increased by 15%-20%. For TOPCon, to achieve the same area investment income as the HPBC 2.0 power station, TOPCon needs to increase the installed capacity by 15%-20%.
With the gradual acceleration of the elimination of backward capacity and some companies terminating or postponing project construction, coupled with the implementation of industry-related policies and the recovery of demand, the industry ecosystem is expected to gradually improve.
"Looking back at the development of the PV industry over the years, as long as there is a significant improvement in efficiency, the promotion of high-efficiency products generally will not have too much pressure. This industry has a long slope and thick snow, and we believe that the industry will enter a period of stable growth, with an annual growth rate of 10%-15%." Speaking of the future of the industry, Zhong Baoshen said.
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