On August 28th, LONGi released the 2019 semi-annual report where many achievements were outstanding.
1. LONGi Stable business performance, breakthrough in overseas markets.
The report showed that LONGi operating income in the first half of 2019 was 14.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.09%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 2.01 billion yuan with basic earnings of 0.57 yuan per share and the weighted average return on equity of 10.17%. At the end of the report period, its total assets reached 51.616 billion yuan with the asset-liability ratio of 56.54%, which was further lower than that in the first quarter of 2019. Compared with the first quarter of 2019, the inventory turnover days and the accounts receivable turnover days decreased by 18 days and 19 days in the second quarter of 2019, respectively.
In the first half of 2019, its monocrystalline silicon wafers sold 2.148 billion pieces, with a year-on-year increase of 183%. The sales of monocrystalline batteries were 712MW, and the external sales of monocrystalline modules were 3,193MW with a year-on-year increase of 21%. In addition, its overseas market expansion achieved remarkable results, and the proportion of overseas sales of modules continued to increase and the external sales of overseas monocrystalline modules reached 2.423GW in the first half of 2019, with a year-on-year increase of 252%, accounting for 76% of the external sales of monocrystalline modules. Under the leadership and continuous promotion of LONGi, the price performance of monocrystalline products has been further highlighted, and its share in the global monocrystalline market has continued to increase, which is expected to increase to 62% and will grow further in the future according to the data from PV InfoLink in July 2 f fb f019.
2. The production capacity of LONGi gets steadily improved and the scale continues to be expanded.
According to the previously published three-year capacity plan, its monocrystalline silicon ingot/wafer capacity will reach 36GW by the end of 2019, 50GW by the end of 2020, and 65GW by the end of 2021. Monocrystalline cell capacity will reach10GW by the end of 2019, 15GW by the end of 2020 and 20GW by the end of 2021; The capacity of monocrystalline modules will reach 16GW by the end of 2019, 25GW by the end of 2020, and 30GW by the end of 2021. According to the current construction progress, it is expected that the wafer capacity will reach 65GW by the end of 2020, one year ahead of the original planning time.
In the first half of 2019, LONGi Chuxiong project with its annual production of 10GW monocrystalline silicon wafer (Phase I) and LONGi Cangzhou project with 5GW modules have been successfully completed. Yunnan monocrystalline silicon ingot and wafer project (Phase II) has implemented at a fast pace, and the scale of monocrystalline capacity has been further expanded, guaranteeing the supply of efficient monocrystalline capacity.
3. LONGi R&D investment and technological innovation to hit a new high, M6 silicon wafer and Hi-MO 4 leading the industry development.
The continuous R&D investment has provided strong support for the research and development of new technologies and products. In the first half of the year, its investment in R&D totaled 718 million Yuan, accounting for 5.53% of the current operating income. At the end of the reporting period, a total of 568 authorized patents were obtained.
In addition, it further reduced the non-silicon cost through equipment modification, process improvement and management improvement. In the first half of 2019, the non-silicon cost of silicon wafers decreased by 31.75%.
The M6 silicon wafer lunched by LONGi in the first half of the year that can improve the power of the cells and modules and reduce the manufacturing cost per watt is expected to become the standard size of the next generation of monocrystalline silicon wafers. Meanwhile, the Hi-MO 4, bifacial half-cell PERC modules based on M6 silicon wafers allows the cell efficiency of 22.5% and the maximum front power up to 440W, further reducing the cost of BOS and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).
