The new installed capacity of global and domestic photovoltaics continues to reach a new high, and the entire domestic photovoltaic industry chain will benefit, and photovoltaic welding strips are one of the important raw materials.
Photovoltaic welding strip is a composite conductive material, as a connecting component in photovoltaic cells, used to connect individual photovoltaic cells in series or parallel, and import the current generated by the cells into the junction box to realize the output of photovoltaic cell electric energy.
In the cost composition of photovoltaic modules, the proportion of photovoltaic welding strips in the cost of photovoltaic modules is about 2%, and the proportion of cost seems to be small. However, it is an indispensable supporting product for solar photovoltaic power generation system, and the quality of the welding strip will not only directly affect the collection and conduction efficiency of current in photovoltaic modules, but also have a crucial impact on the service life of photovoltaic modules, which is an important material in photovoltaic modules.
According to different uses, photovoltaic welding strips are mainly divided into interconnection ribbons and busbar ribbons. Interconnect ribbon, also known as interconnection strip and interconnection strip, is used to connect photovoltaic cells, collect and transmit photovoltaic cell current. The busbar ribbon, also known as the busbar strip, is a ribbon used to connect the photovoltaic cell string and the junction box to transmit the current of the photovoltaic cell string.
What is the market size of photovoltaic ribbon?
At present, the pace of global energy transition is accelerating, and the installed capacity of wind and solar storage is growing rapidly. According to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, the global PV installed capacity is expected to be 345-390GW in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 50%-70% compared to 240GW in 2022. If the compound growth rate of new global installed capacity can reach 10% in the next few years, it is expected that the new global installed capacity will reach 417-472GW in 2025.
The new PV installed capacity in the domestic market started from the new policy in 2018 and declined for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. However, growth began to resume in 2020, with 48.2GW of new installed capacity in 2020 and about 200GW in 2023, and the proportion of new domestic PV installed capacity in the world continues to expand.
The rapid growth of new global photovoltaic installed capacity has driven the demand for photovoltaic auxiliary materials to continue to grow. According to the comprehensive analysis of industry data, each GW of photovoltaic modules needs to consume about 450 tons of welding strip, and the capacity ratio is about 1:1.2, assuming that the sales unit price of welding strip rises by 3% per year, the market demand for photovoltaic welding strip in 23-25 years is 21/23/250,000 tons respectively. In 2025, the market size of welding strip will reach 24.7 billion yuan, and the market will continue to grow.
What are the companies in the photovoltaic ribbon industry chain?
In the photovoltaic power generation industry chain, the upstream is mainly for the production of photovoltaic cells related raw materials, including silicon wafers, silver paste, quartz sand, base film, etc., the midstream is mainly for the construction of photovoltaic power stations and components and components, including cells, inverters, photovoltaic brackets and cables, etc., and the downstream is mainly photovoltaic power stations and other application fields. Welding strip is an important component in the middle of the photovoltaic industry chain.
From the perspective of cost, the raw materials of photovoltaic welding strips are mainly copper and tin alloys, and the direct material cost accounts for more than 90%. The main function of the tin alloy layer is to make the photovoltaic ribbon meet the weldability, and the photovoltaic ribbon is firmly welded on the main grid of the cell. Both metals are commodities and are used in relatively small quantities in the photovoltaic industry.
The competitive advantage of the mainland photovoltaic ribbon industry is obvious, and there are currently Yubang New Materials, Tongxiang Technology, Sun Technology, Telisson, Witten Electric and other enterprises with a leading market share. Industry data shows that in 2021, the market share of Yubang New Materials will be 16.5%, ranking first in the industry, the market share of Tongxiang Technology will be 10.2%, and the market share of the top five companies will be 43.1%, with a high degree of industry concentration.
Yubang New Materials, the company in 2006 contact with the photovoltaic ribbon industry, 17 years of continuous independent research and development, and gradually grow into a leading enterprise, is currently the national market share of the first leading enterprises. The company focuses on the field of photovoltaic ribbon products, and the revenue proportion of photovoltaic ribbon products continues to remain above 98%, which is the company's main source of income.
Since 2018, the company's revenue has maintained a continuous growth trend for six consecutive years, but the net profit growth rate is smaller than the revenue growth. This is mainly due to the rapid rise in the price of raw materials such as copper and tin alloy in recent years, and the material cost of copper and tin alloy accounts for more than 90%, and the cost cannot be completely passed on to the downstream, so the net profit of the product is greatly affected by the price of upstream raw materials.
In the first three quarters of 2023, the company achieved operating income of 2.046 billion yuan, which has exceeded the annual revenue scale of 2.011 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 41.92%, and a net profit of 118 million yuan, which also exceeded the net profit scale of 100 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 55.71%. Fully benefit from the increase in global and domestic PV new installations.
Since the resumption of growth in the photovoltaic industry in 2020, major competitors in the industry, including Tongxiang Technology, Witten Electric, Telison, Juren Materials and other companies, have announced expansion plans, with a total expansion scale of about 59,000 tons/year. The company also conformed to the development trend of the photovoltaic industry, and used IPOs and convertible bonds to raise and invest in projects to expand production by about 33,500 tons, accounting for more than 35% of the recent new production capacity. During the year, it also attracted 296 surveys from 210 institutions, and the funding attention was extremely high.
Relying on its product and service advantages, the company has successfully accumulated a large number of well-known photovoltaic module manufacturers, which have penetrated into the supply chain of downstream photovoltaic companies such as LONGi Green Energy, Trina Solar, Hanwha Q Solar, JinkoSolar, and EGing Technology. Therefore, with the gradual release of the company's new production capacity, the market share is expected to continue to increase, and the company's revenue will also increase accordingly.
On the whole, with the continuous increase in the new installed capacity of global photovoltaics, welding strip enterprises will also fully benefit, especially the opportunity to increase the market share of leading enterprises, and they are optimistic that enterprises can maintain relatively stable profitability.
Special statement: The content only represents personal views and does not constitute any investment guidance, according to which you buy and sell, profit and loss at your own risk, the stock market is risky, and investment needs to be cautious!