① The revenue and net profit of the leading heterojunction equipment company both increased in the first half of the year, but the company's inventory book value reached 10.983 billion yuan, accounting for 45.14% of the total assets in the current period; ② The inventory scale is high, which is a common situation for many photovoltaic equipment manufacturers. The risk of inventory stagnation or price drops may adversely affect the company's business performance.
Financial Services Association, August 28 (Reporter Liu Mengran) In addition to the sluggish performance of the main photovoltaic industry chain, “shovel sellers” equipment manufacturers have achieved performance growth, but concerns have also surfaced.
Tonight, heterojunction equipment leader Maiwei Co., Ltd. (300751.SZ) disclosed financial reports for the first half of the year, achieving both an increase in revenue and net profit. However, the company's inventory book value reached 10.983 billion yuan, accounting for 45.14% of the total assets for the period.
According to the latest interim report, the company achieved operating income of 4.869 billion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 69.74% over the previous year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 0.461 billion yuan, an increase of 8.63% over the previous year. During the reporting period, the increase in sales volume of photovoltaic cell equipment led to a significant increase in the company's revenue. However, on a quarterly basis, the company's Q2 net profit was 0.201 billion yuan, down 22.73% from Q1.
In terms of costs, the increase in sales expenses is an important reason why profit growth is less than revenue. In the first half of the year, the company's sales expenses reached 0.433 billion yuan, an increase of 63% over the previous year.
Notably, the company's inventory size increased significantly in 2023. By the end of last year, the book value of the company's inventory was 10.781 billion yuan, an increase of 102% over the end of 2022. Regarding the high book value of the inventory, the company claims that it is mainly related to the company's product inspection cycle. The company's product inspection period is relatively long, resulting in a large amount of goods issued in the company's inventory structure at the end of the period.
In the first half of this year, Maiwei's stock inventory remained above 10 billion yuan. The company stated in the risk warning that the inventory is large. On the one hand, it takes up the company's working capital. On the other hand, since the products are issued, revenue has not yet been achieved. If the products do not meet the inspection standards, there may be a risk of inventory price drops and losses, which will have a negative impact on the company's production and operation.
In the first half of the year, the company calculated asset impairment reserves of about 0.256 billion yuan. Furthermore, as of the end of the reporting period, the company's accounts receivable balance was $2.499 billion, accounting for 51.33% of current revenue.
During the reporting period, Maiwei Co., Ltd. launched a GW-grade heterojunction battery solution, which fully covered the four processes of heterojunction battery production. Technically, the company has developed the second-generation barrier-free technology NBB and its string welding equipment, which can reduce silver paste consumption by more than 30% by removing all main grids from the battery.
According to the agency's optimistic expectations, the heterojunction battery sector is expected to be profitable in the fourth quarter of 2024, and accelerated production expansion will begin in the first half of 2025.
It is worth mentioning that the inventory scale is high, which is a common situation in many photovoltaic equipment manufacturers. Some industry analysts believe that “collection” may be the next major risk for equipment manufacturers. According to the interim report of TopCon technology equipment leader Jiejia Weichuang (300724.SZ), the company's net inventory value at the end of the reporting period was 21.636 billion yuan, of which issued products accounted for 91.02% of inventory. The risk of inventory stagnation or price drop may adversely affect the company's business performance.
As of the end of June 2024, the book value of Otway's (688516.SH) inventory was 7.34 billion yuan. Among them, the proportion of goods issued was relatively high. The book value of goods issued at the end of the period was 6.147 billion yuan, accounting for 83.74% of the inventory at the end of the period. The company explained that it is mainly due to the long installation, commissioning and trial operation cycle of equipment products from release to customer acceptance.