The major reshuffle of photovoltaic module manufacturers has changed the world's top three leaders

Interface News Reporter |

In 2023, the overall ranking of photovoltaic modules will change greatly, with the reshuffle of leading companies and the addition of four new faces.

On February 9, InfoLink Consulting updated its 2023 global module shipment rankings. Compared with the previous year, the positions of the world's top three module leaders have all changed.

Among them, JinkoSolar (688223.SH) has taken the position of the global module leader, which is its return to the first place after three years. LONGi Green Energy (601012.SH) fell one place to tie for second place with Trina Solar (688599.SH), which rose one place. According to the rules of the agency, manufacturers with a difference of no more than 5% in total shipments are tied for the ranking.

JA Solar (002459.SZ) remains in fourth place, maintaining that position for the second year in a row.

According to InfoLink Consulting, since 2019, the top 4 vertically integrated factories have stuck to the top four positions, and the trend of Evergrande has become more obvious in recent years, with a significant gap in shipments compared with the lower-ranked manufacturers. In 2022, the gap between the top four leaders and the manufacturers that started from the fifth place will be 20 GW, and in 2023, the top four leaders will start as high as 60 GW, and the gap with the fifth place will expand to 30 GW.

According to the agency's calculations, the shipments of the top four leading companies account for about 60% of the installed capacity of the Top10 list.

2022 and 2023 Global Module Shipment Rankings Image source: InfoLink Consulting

Last year, the competition among second-tier manufacturers was also very fierce. Among them, Tongwei (600438.SH) has risen to fifth place last year after being listed in the top 10 in the world for the first time in 2022, tied with Canadian Solar (688472.SH).

Tongwei is already the global leader in polysilicon and photovoltaic cells, and has just entered the module segment in the second half of 2022. By the end of the first half of 2023, it has formed an annual production capacity of more than 420,000 tons of high-purity crystalline silicon, 90 GW of solar cells, and 55 GW of modules. According to the company's previous plan, module production capacity will reach 80 GW by the end of last year.

According to InfoLink Consulting, Tongwei's module shipments increased by 262% year-on-year last year, making it the only manufacturer with both cells and modules in the top 10 on the list.

Chint New Energy's ranking remained unchanged from the previous year and remained at seventh place. CHINT's N-type products account for a relatively high proportion, accounting for more than 80% of the total production capacity.

Risen Energy (300118.SZ) fell from sixth place in consecutive years to eighth place. The company is mainly betting on heterojunction technology, and the shipment is slightly lagging behind the background of the significant increase in TOPCon shipments and proportion.

As a leading enterprise in the field of TOPCon, Yixin Energy has fully enjoyed the technical dividends, ranking ninth on the list for the first time. On December 29 last year, the official website of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange showed that the IPO of Yiyi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yiyi Xinneng) had been accepted, and the company planned to be listed on the GEM.

A new energy has a deep relationship with the state-owned Three Gorges Group. According to the prospectus, in 2022 and the first half of 2023, Three Gorges Group will be the largest customer of Xinneng, and the proportion of sales will continue to increase.

According to the survey and statistics of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, the market share of N-type TOPCon modules produced by Yiyi Xinneng in 2022 ranked among the top three in China.

In 2023, there are four companies tied for the tenth place in the statistics of InfoLink Consulting, namely First Solar, GCL Integration (002506.SZ), Yingli Energy, and Hengdian East Magnetic (002056.SZ). First Solar is the only overseas manufacturer on the list, down two places compared to 2022, while South Korean company Hanwha has dropped out of the top 10.

GCL Integration and Yingli Energy are both established module companies, and they have restructured their businesses and re-entered the list after removing their historical burdens. GCL Integration's large-size TOPCon production capacity has been implemented one after another, and its performance increased by 152.9%-270.9% last year.

Yingli was once the global module leader from 2008 to 2010, and after the debt crisis, judicial restructuring and other adjustments, Yingli Energy appeared as a "state-owned enterprise". According to Jiemian News, the company plans to achieve a module production capacity of more than 30 GW and an N-type cell production capacity of 20 GW by 2024.

According to InfoLink Consulting, the return of old brands to the top 10 list also indicates that the fierce competition situation will be extended into 2024

Hengdian DMC is also a new face on this list. However, in the 2022 statistics of PV-Tech, another PV industry media, Hengdian DMC was already on the list that year.

Founded in 1980, Hengdian DMC entered the photovoltaic industry in 2009 and the lithium battery industry in 2016, and its main business involves related products of the two major industrial groups of "magnetic material + new energy".

The company expects the net profit attributable to the parent company to be 1.76 billion to 1.92 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 5.44%-15.02%, and the shipment of photovoltaic products will be about 10 GW throughout the year.

According to statistics from InfoLink Consulting, the shipments of manufacturers such as Suntech, Jinzhou Solar, Hanwha Q-CELLS, Huansheng, and Seraphim also climbed to 7-10 GW.

According to the agency, considering the shipment targets of manufacturers on the list, it is estimated that the global module shipment plan in 2024 will be as high as 700 GW, of which the shipment plan for new technology products will account for more than 70%, and even some plans will account for 90-100%, of which TOPCon planning will be the main one. The shipment targets of the top four manufacturers have been significantly increased to the level of about 90 GW or even 120 GW, which is still significantly different from the second-tier manufacturers.

InfoLink forecasts that module demand growth will slow in 2024, with an annual growth rate of only about 11% and a volume of about 460-519 GW. This means that the fierce competition in the industry will continue this year.