LONDON: JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., on Friday posted a first-quarter net profit of RMB 313.3 million ($48.6 million) — more than a sixfold increase compared to the first three months of 2015 – while total revenue doubled to RMB 5.47 billion ($847.8 million). The Chinese company’s total solar module shipments reached 1.6 GW, more than a 100% increase year over year, with 166 MW of that slated for its own downstream projects.
“We began the year very strongly with total module shipments reaching 1,600 MW, ranking us as the biggest module supplier among our peers during the first quarter,” said JinkoSolar CEO Kangping Chen. “Next month marks our 10-year anniversary and I couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate this milestone,” he added, noting that since its establishment, JinkoSolar had shipped a total of 13 GW in more than 70 countries and regions.
Kangping noted that global solar demand continued to grow as costs dropped. “China remains our biggest market with a number of big orders continuing to come in, a trend we believe will continue in the second quarter.” The chief exec stressed that the group’s market share in the U.S. continued to expand. While the ITC extension resulted in some projects being postponed, Kangping expressed confidence that the company would hit its U.S. shipment targets for the year. He noted that JinkoSolar’s overseas production facility provided extra flexibility and higher margins.
Kangping added that the group was seeing “great opportunities in exciting emerging markets such as Chile, Thailand and India.” For the second quarter of 2016, the company expects total module shipments to range between 1.6 GW and 1.7 GW, including 1.45 GW to 1.6 GW of module shipments to third parties. JinkoSolar does not recognize revenue from modules shipped to its own downstream projects, as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP). For the full year, JinkoSolar forecasts total module shipments of between 6 GW and 6.5 GW, including 5.4 GW to 5.7 GW for third parties. It expects its newly-added solar power project development scale for the full year to reach between 600 MW to 800 MW.
