China's GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd (HKG:3800) today posted a 13% year-on-year decline in attributable profit from continuing operations for the first half of 2017, down to CNY 1.2 billion (USD 182m/EUR 153m).
The company said its results reflect a significant profits drop at its solar material business, or polysilicon and wafer division, due to a challenging market environment. Performance in that division was in part offset by increased profit contribution from its unit GCL New Energy Holdings (GNE), which develops, builds and operates solar farms, and its solar farm business, which encompasses 371 MW of solar farms, held by the company before getting a controlling stake in GNE.
Revenue from continuing operations fell 8.2% to CNY 11.4 billion, mainly as a result of a decrease in the average selling price of wafer, which was compensated for to a certain extent by increased wafer sales and greater revenue contribution by GNE.
In the period, the company produced 38,747 tonnes of polysilicon, up 6.7% from a year ago, and sold 4,888 tonnes to external customers. It produced 10,599 MW of wafer, a rise of 22.6%, and sold 10,611 MW. GCL-Poly said it ranked first in the world again in terms of production volumes of polysilicon and wafer.
GNE, meanwhile, has increased its installed capacity by 85.7% from a year back to 5,079 MW.
The group's gross profit margin declined to 32.8% from 34.2%, with the solar material business seeing a drop to 24.6% from 31.8%.
The results for the company's segments are in the table, in CNY million.
| Segment |
Revenue |
Segment profit |
| Polysilicon and wafer |
9,317 |
789 |
| Solar farms |
268 |
67 |
| GNE |
2,526 |
532 |
| Total |
12,111 |
1,388 |
The company expects global photovoltaic (PV) demand to increase to about 85 GW–90 GW this year from 70–75 GW in 2016. "With strong seasonality in the first half of 2017 driven by domestic Chinese solar installation demand, we believe the sales outlook in the second half to remain solid, with robust demand coming from China and rest-of-the-world," it said.
(CNY 1 = USD 0.152/EUR 0.127)
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