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JinkoSolar, a Chinese holding company, is a major manufacturer and supplier of solar modules and other solar energy products such as silicon ingots, silicon wafers, solar PV cells, monocrystalline and multicrystalline photovoltaic (PV) panels. In terms of gigawatts (GW) delivered, it is one of the world’s largest solar panel makers. The company began as a manufacturer of silicon wafers in 2006 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
Currently, it has 14 production facilities across the world, including in China, the US, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Despite expansion into the United States and other markets such as Chile, Thailand, and India, China remains the company’s largest market. Additionally, the company serves customers in 160 countries throughout the world.
Jinko’s board of directors is devoid of Chinese government representatives. It is not a state-owned enterprise, and its shares are listed on the NYSE, with tens of millions of dollars invested by American mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Additionally, the company is a member of the Silicon Module Super League, which was subsequently renamed the Solar Module Super League. The league includes major crystalline silicon module providers in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry.
Due to concerns over the use of forced Uyghur labour, US Customs and Border Protection began prohibiting the entry of JinkoSolar products into the US in 2021. Nevertheless, it has now been removed from the prohibited list.
JinkoSolar business model
JinkoSolar’s declared mission is to ‘Provide a Comprehensive, One Stop Clean Energy Solution & Become an Industry Benchmark.’ According to the corporation, its factories in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the United States have exceeded 51.3% clean energy utilisation using a combination of hydro, solar, and wind energy. It hopes to increase that to 60% by the end of 2023.
After several years of relying on an ‘asset-lite’ strategy, JinkoSolar made a major shift towards an ’integrated’ manufacturing product value chain with an integrated annual capacity of 32.5 GW for mono wafers, 24 GW for solar cells, and 45 GW for solar modules, as of December 31, 2021. In other words, it has a production capacity for every manufacturing stage, allowing it to achieve more control over costs and production.
As per company data, JinkoSolar has secured 1,159 patents till 2021 in China and has more than 1,000 R&D and technical employees. In 2022, the company invested around 724 m yuan (~$105.4 m) in R&D, registering around a 57% increase from 461 m yuan (~$66.7m) in 2021.
With increased R&D efforts, the business announced in December 2022 that their high-efficiency N-Type monocrystalline silicon solar cell outperformed the previous record of maximum conversion efficiency of 26.1% by achieving an efficiency of 26.4%.
JinkoSolar has also formed a partnership with Nanchang University in Jiangxi Province, China, to construct a collaborative PV materials research centre on the Nanchang University campus. “We are confident that we will maintain our leading position in terms of R&D, mass-produced efficiency and production capacity,” the company said on its official website in 2023.
JinkoSolar has been on the Fortune China 500 list for eight consecutive years, rising from 437th in 2015 to 309th position in 2022.
Performance of JinkoSolar
JinkoSolar’s total revenues for Q4 of FY 22 was 30.40 bn yuan (~$4.41 bn), up 55.8% sequentially and up 85.5% year-over-year. Revenue for the entire FY22 was 83.53 bn yuan (~$12.11 bn), up 104.6% year over year. The increased income was mostly due to an increase in the shipment of solar modules.
Last year, annual shipments were 46,580 MW (44,520 MW solar modules and 2,060 MW cells and wafers), an increase of 84.5% year on year. Gross profit was 12.35 bn yuan ($1.79 bn), an increase of 85.4% year on year. The gross margin was 14.8% in FY22, down from 16.3% in FY21. The decline was mostly caused by a rise in the price of silicon.
In FY22, the company’s net income increased 1.7% year on year to 1.44 bn yuan (~$208.3 m). Ordinary shareholders of JinkoSolar were entitled to 665.2m yuan (~$96.4m) in net income, a decline from 721.0m yuan (~$104 m) in the year 2021.
The adjusted net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 1.44 bn yuan (~$208.3m), up from 538.7m yuan (~$78.39 m) in 2021.
The company supplied 130 GW of solar modules worldwide by the end of 2022. Outside of China, the firm generated 82.5%, 81.9%, and 75.2% of its total revenue in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively — making it an important sales ground for the company.
Stock movement of JinkoSolar
JinkoSolar went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 (NYSE: JKS). The company has a market capitalization of $2.5 bn. The company’s stock has risen over 11% in the past year, as of March 14, 2023. It has a PE ratio of 25.53, and a forward PE ratio of 8.98.
The company has a price-to-book ratio of 1.28. Since April 2021, the stock has risen over 19%, hitting an all-time high in July 2022.
What is next for JinkoSolar
According to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Global Solar Energy 2023 Outlook, worldwide solar demand increased by nearly 40% in 2022, while industry revenues increased by around 50%. The report claims that solar demand will exceed 20% in 2023-25, with industry-wide sales for the businesses expected to approach $220 bn in 2023.
With this market potential, JinkoSolar appears to be well-positioned and is looking to expand. “By the end of 2023, we expect our annual production capacity for mono wafers, solar cells and solar modules to reach 75GW, 75GW and 90GW, respectively,” the company states on its website. “We expect our module shipments to be in the range of 11 GW to 13 GW for the first quarter of 2023 and 60 GW to 70 GW for the full year 2023,” it added.
In January 2023, the company agreed to build an 11 GW high-efficiency solar cell and a 15 GW high-efficiency module facility in the city of Haining in China’s Zhejiang province. The deal also includes a 10 GWh energy storage integration system and a 10 GWh battery cell plant.
The company expects to earn 25 bn yuan (~$3.6 bn) in yearly output value from the energy storage facility and 30 bn yuan (~$4.34 bn) from the high-efficiency cell and module project when it is completed. Several other projects are either under construction or in the preparation phase.
“We aim to change the way we generate and use electricity, optimise energy portfolio, and take responsibility for enabling a sustainable future by delivering the cleanest, most efficient and economic solar energy solutions,” Daniel Liu, Head of South & Central Asia, JinkoSolar told an Indian media outlet in 2021.
“We are also committed to promoting the wide application of solar PV generation worldwide, thereby promoting comprehensive replacement of conventional energy sources with solar energy and building a sustainable green world. We will continue to optimise methods that help reach carbon neutrality and empower other organisations and industries to achieve the same,” he added.
