Jinko Solar gets approval to expand US plant

The project, established in November 2017, was invested with USD 52 million. The factory is mainly used for the production and sales of solar modules. This expansion will increase its capacity by 1 GW of modules.

This is an important step in Jinko Solar’s global expansion plan. By 2020, the production capacity of Jinko Solar’s silicon wafers, cells, and modules was 21.94 GW, 10.67 GW, and 19.85 GW, respectively. After two years of active expansion, its effective capacity of silicon wafers, cells, and modules has increased to 65 GW, 55 GW, and 70 GW, respectively.

According to the official page of Jinko Solar, it is expected that by 2023, the capacity of wafers, cells, and modules will further increase to 75 GW, 75 GW, and 90 GW.

The company was established in 2006 and went public on the US stock market in 2010, attracting global investor’s attention and achieving rapid development of its own. In 2016, the company stood out among peers, winning the global module shipment championship for the first time and maintaining it until 2019.

However, in 2020, when the global solar industry was growing against the trend, the shipment volume of its modules fell to the second place in the world, and in 2021, it further declined to the fourth place in the world. Meanwhile, the company also completed the domestic listing process in 2021 and released N-type modules at the end of the year, widely recognized by the global market.

In 2022, Jinko Solar demonstrated its ability to win four consecutive championships at the beginning of the year. In the first quarter, the module shipment volume reached 8.03 GW. During this period, the cumulative global shipment volume of Jinko Solar’s modules also exceeded 100 GW, the first solar enterprise to complete such target.

The company also shipped 10.18 GW in the second quarter, and maintaining its top performance of 18.21 GW in the first half of the year. However, it was unable to maintain this advantage in the second half of 2022.

According to InfoLink, Jinko Solar ranked second in terms of module shipments in 2022. However, the company’s annual module shipments exceeded 44 GW and N-type module shipments exceeded 10 GW. Meanwhile, the mass production efficiency of Jinko Solar’s N-type cell has also increased from 24.5% to 25.1%.

In terms of performance, Jinko Solar achieved a revenue of CNY 83.075 billion yuan in 2022, up 104.77%. The net profit attributable to the parent company was CNY 2.947 billion yuan, up 158.21%.

According to the annual report of Jinko Solar in 2021, its gross profit margin in North America reached as high as 24.79% in 2020. This increase in US factory capacity is also conducive to its overall profit improvement.