JinkoSolar's 2019 net profit doubles on record revenues

JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd (NYSE:JKS) posted record-high shipments and revenues for 2019 and said it does not expect the coronavirus outbreak to materially hurt its operations.

The Chinese solar module maker said on Friday that the COVID-19 outbreak will not have any “material adverse impact” on its business thanks to initiatives of stocking up critical raw materials and enhancing production and logistics. Although the supply chain was temporarily affected, it has improved significantly in the first quarter, the manufacturer explained, adding that around 400 MW-500 MW of solar module shipments will be delayed to the second quarter. It has recovered to 100% capacity utilisation, with future capacity expansion plans not seen to be hurt by the outbreak.

JinkoSolar closed 2019 with an attributable net profit to ordinary shareholders of CNY 898.7 million (USD 128.4m/EUR 115.1m), more than doubling from CNY 406.5 million a year back. Revenues in the past year reached an all-time-high at CNY 29.75 billion, growing 18.8% in annual terms mainly thanks to the increase in module shipments. However, this was partially offset by a decline in the average selling price of solar modules. The higher shipments, coupled with increased production volumes and a cut in integrated production costs led to a record gross profit of CNY 5.43 billion.

More details about the company’s performance in the fourth quarter (Q4) and full 2019 are given in the table below.

At end-2019, JinkoSolar had an in-house annual production capacity of 11.5 GW for mono wafers, 11.5 GW for cells and 16 GW for modules. It shipped 14.3 GW of solar modules in 2019, including 64 MW that will be used for company-owned downstream projects abroad, up from 11.4 GW in 2018.

"We are benefitting from the rapid expansion of our mono wafer production capacity during the second half of 2019 and our industry-leading integrated cost structure, which has ideally positioned us to drive growth throughout full year 2020 where we expect solar module shipments to increase by approximately 35%," said CEO Kangping Chen.

For the first quarter of this year, the company forecasts total solar module shipments of 3.4 GW to 3.7 GW, total revenues of between USD 1 billion and USD 1.08 billion and gross margin of 19%-21%. For the full year, it sees total solar module shipments within the range of 18 GW-20 GW.

The following table shows the company's annual solar manufacturing capacity targets for end-2020.

(CNY 1.0 = USD 0.143/EUR 0.128)

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