Financial Services Association, April 30 (Reporter Liu Mengran) In the photovoltaic industry's downward cycle, module leaders are also somewhat “unable to withstand”. Longji Green Energy (601012.SH) released financial reports tonight. In the first quarter of this year, the company achieved operating revenue of 17.674 billion yuan and a net loss of 2.35 billion yuan. Accruing an impairment reserve of 2,649 billion yuan for inventory assets is an important reason for Longji Green Energy's profit to loss.

According to the 2023 annual report released at the same time, the company achieved operating income of 129.498 billion yuan last year, a slight increase of 0.39% over the previous year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 10.751 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 27.41%. The reason for the decline in performance was mainly affected by falling product prices and technological iterations. In 2023, the company prepared 6.757 billion yuan for price reductions in inventory and fixed assets, of which 5.171 billion yuan was calculated for inventory price reductions.

In terms of annual shipments, Longji Green Energy achieved 125.42 GW of monocrystalline silicon wafer shipments last year; achieved 5.90 GW of monocrystalline battery sales; and achieved 67.52 GW of monocrystalline modules (of which 66.44 GW in foreign sales). Based on the published annual report of Jinko Energy (78.52GW) and Tianhe Solar (65.21GW) shipment data, the company's component shipment ranking dropped from first to second in 2022.

A CFA reporter noticed that in the first quarter of this year, the impact on the company was even more obvious when product prices continued to decline in various links in the photovoltaic industry chain. In the current period, the company achieved operating income of 17.674 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.59%; realized net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 2.350 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 164.61%.

Among them, the accrued inventory asset impairment provision reached 2,649 million yuan, and the calculated fixed asset impairment provision reached 152 million yuan; due to the sharp drop in silicon prices, the investment income confirmed by participating silicon companies was 103 million yuan, a sharp decrease of 1,082 billion yuan over the previous year.

High inventory depreciation is still related to the rapid decline in the price of photovoltaic products. Since the price of photovoltaic modules fell below 1 yuan/W in the fourth quarter of last year, the tender price has now dropped to around 0.8 yuan/W. There is widespread operating pressure in all parts of the industrial chain, and module manufacturers are also generally losing money. According to InfoLink data, in 2023, the price of polycrystalline dense materials will drop by about 70%, the price of silicon wafers will drop by about 60%, and the price of modules will drop by about 50%. This has aroused concern among market participants. They believe that disorderly low price competition will damage the profit level of enterprises.

In terms of production capacity, by the end of 2023, the company's own silicon wafer production capacity reached 170 GW, battery production capacity reached 80 GW, and module production capacity reached 120 GW. During the reporting period, Longji Green Energy actively accelerated production capacity upgrades and mass production of HPBC and TopCon. Xixian's annual output of 29GW and Taizhou's 4GW high-efficiency HPBC battery production capacity have all been put into operation, and projects such as the Ordos 46GW silicon wafer project, 30GW battery project, and Wuhu 10GW modules have been put into operation one after another.

As production capacity transformation for future technology accelerates, the company expects to achieve the silicon wafer shipment target of 135GW and the target of 90-100GW of battery plus modules in 2024.

In terms of the 2024 annual target, the head of Longji Green Energy said that the overall shipment growth rate this year will not be lower than the average growth rate of the industry, and product shipments will continue to grow. In the next three years, the company expects the annual production capacity of monocrystalline silicon wafers to reach 200GW, of which “Terry” silicon wafers will account for more than 80%, the annual production capacity of BC batteries will reach 100GW, and the annual production capacity of monocrystalline modules will reach 150GW.