Event: The company released its 2023 annual report and 2024 quarterly report. The company released its 2023 annual report, achieving operating income of 81,556 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.74%; realized net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 7.039 billion yuan, an increase of 27.21% year-on-year, after deducting 7.140 billion yuan for nonprofit, an increase of 28.46% over the previous year. At the same time, the company released its 2024 quarterly report. In the first quarter, it achieved operating income of 15.971 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 22.02%; realized net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies - 483 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 118.70%, after deducting non-profit - 369 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 114.81%.
Battery module shipments are growing rapidly, and gross margins have increased. In 2023, the company will give full play to its global marketing service network advantages and brand advantages, further increase market development efforts, and drive the company's battery module shipments to a new record high. In 2023, the company shipped 57.09 GW of battery modules (including 2.16 GW for personal use), and export sales volume was 53.15 GW, an increase of 39.47% over the previous year. Among them, the overseas shipment volume of components was about 25.51 GW, accounting for about 48%; the distribution shipment volume was about 14.35 GW, accounting for about 27%. The PV module business achieved revenue of 78.175 billion yuan, an increase of 11.13% over the previous year. The average sales price of the estimated component without tax is approximately 1.47 yuan/W. The profitability of the component business increased throughout the year. The gross profit margin of the component business was 18.28%, an increase of 3.97 percentage points over the previous year.
Steadily advance the company's global strategic layout. The company's sales and service network has spread to 165 countries and regions around the world, and 13 sales companies have been set up in major overseas countries, and regional operation centers have been set up for the two major mature markets in Europe and the US to strengthen operational functions such as manpower, law, finance, and delivery, enhance service capabilities, and steadily advance the company's global strategic layout.
The advantages of the new battery technology have been further strengthened. In 2023, the company accelerated the construction of N-type battery production capacity, and the 57GW N-type battery project was put into operation. The conversion efficiency of mass-produced Bycium+ (Bycium+) batteries has reached 26.3%, and will continue to be optimized to further improve efficiency and stability. At the same time, the pilot conversion efficiency of the “Hycium (Hycium)” heterojunction high-efficiency battery R&D project based on silicon-based heterojunction technology has been steadily improved, and production costs have been reduced through the introduction of a series of process improvement measures, so large-scale mass production conditions are in place. The R&D center actively researches and reserves cutting-edge technologies such as various full-back contact batteries, perovskite, and laminated batteries to maintain core competitiveness.
High quality production capacity is expanding at an accelerated pace. By the end of 2023, the company's module production capacity was over 95 GW, and the production capacity of silicon wafers and batteries was about 90% of the module production capacity, including more than 57 GW of n-type batteries. According to the company's future production capacity plan, the company's production capacity of silicon wafers, batteries and modules will all exceed 100GW by the end of 2024.
Investment advice. Under current share capital, based on the company's profitability and industry supply and demand, we expect the company's net profit to be 30.24/40.45/5.854 billion yuan in 2024, corresponding to the closing price PE of 16.00X/ 11.96X/8.27X on May 7, 2024, maintaining the company's “buy” rating.
Risk warning: risk of technological change, risk of fluctuating raw material prices, risk of overseas operations, increased risk of industry competition, risk of demand falling short of expectations.