Some of that can be attributed to seasonality, with shipments having fallen quarter-on-quarter during the first calendar quarter for the last five years as shown in our chart further down. However, the drop this year has been sharper than previous years.
Gross profit fell 33.1% between the final quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, reaching RMB2.74 billion (US$378.8 million), while gross margin also contracted slightly, from 12.5% to 11.9% in the most recent quarter.
Some of these struggles could be attributed to worsening relations between Chinese module manufacturers and their primary consumers, buyers in the US and Europe. JinkoSolar announced that more than 70% of its modules were shipped overseas in the first quarter of 2024, reflecting the importance of these sales to the company’s financial performance, and both European and American buyers have warned about the impacts of an oversupply of Chinese-made modules on their respective industries’ manufacturing sectors.
As shown in the graph below, the company’s module and wafer and cell shipments has increased dramatically over the last eight years, with the fourth quarter of 2023 representing the fourth consecutive quarter of shipment growth, a feat unlikely to be repeated.
In the first quarter of 2024, the company sold 51.2% more products compared to the first quarter of 2023 but total revenues were flat over this period, falling 1.2%. This is presumably down to the well-document fall in module prices.
Module shipments in particular were a highlight for the company, with sale volumes increasing 53.3% year-on-year to 19.99GW in the first quarter of this year. N-type modules accounted for nearly 80% of the company’s total module shipments, and nearly half of sales to the US, as the technology becomes an increasingly integral part of the company’s portfolio.
Earlier this year, JinkoSolar highlighted a number of n-type products at the World Future Energy Summit and Exhibition (WFES) in Abu Dhabi, and in February, the company unveiled a new n-type module that it notes to have been made with enough renewable energy to eliminate its carbon footprint.
The company plans to accelerate the phasing out of its older p-type products this year, and for n-type products to account for 90% of its total capacity by the end of the year.
Looking ahead, JinkoSolar notes that it expects to ship 24-26GW of modules in the second quarter of this year, leading to year-end module shipments of between 100-110GW. This would be a notable increase, considering the company shipped 78.52GW of modules in 2023. JinkoSolar is also optimistic about growth in the global solar sector more broadly, noting that it expects global PV demand to grow 25-30% in 2024, potentially driving more interest in n-type products.
The news follows the outbreak of a fire at a silicon wafer slicing and solar cell manufacturing facility in the Chinese province of Shanxi last Friday, 26 April. While there were no casualties at the factory, JinkoSolar noted that “the incident is expected to impact the company’s operations and financial results in 2024,” and that it would reallocate some of the factory’s wafer and cell production to other facilities to minimise disruption.
