Solar Sector Slump; Market Values, Delisting Fears.

As of the close on June 28, the WIND Photovoltaic Index fell to 2497.59, down 16.29% in the past 20 days, and has declined by 30.04% since the beginning of the year, marking a new low for the photovoltaic sector in nearly three years.

Among the constituents of the WIND Photovoltaic Index, only two companies with a market value of over 100 billion yuan remain, namely Sungrow Power Supply (300274.SZ) and Longi Green Energy (601012.SH), with market values of 128.3 billion yuan and 106.2 billion yuan, respectively.

As of the time of the First Financial reporter's submission, the top five companies in the WIND Photovoltaic Index are Sungrow Power Supply (300274.SZ), Longi Green Energy (601012.SH), Tongwei Shares (600438.SH), Jinko Energy (688223.SH), and TBEA Co., Ltd. (600089.SH). In addition to the first two having market values exceeding 100 billion yuan, the market values of the third to fifth are 85.8 billion yuan, 71.1 billion yuan, and 70 billion yuan, respectively.

Two months ago, as of the close on April 26, the total market value of these five companies was 532.9 billion yuan, but as of today's reporter's submission, the total market value of these five companies is 461.4 billion yuan. This means that within two months, the total market value of the top five companies has fallen by over 13%, with a decrease of more than 70 billion yuan.

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"The industry cycle has been reflected in the financial data of the first quarter of 2024," said Jinko Energy's Vice President Qian Jing in a previous interview with First Financial reporters. Among the top 9 photovoltaic companies, only 3 companies maintained profitability, while 6 companies suffered their first net profit loss, with some experiencing significant losses.

Amid the industry's downturn, leading or first-tier companies face the challenge of shrinking market value, while some small and medium-sized enterprises face the crisis of delisting.

Companies being ST or delisted generally include financial issues, regulatory issues, and major violations, among others. Currently, the number of photovoltaic listed companies on the A-share market that have been ST has increased to 8, with ST Yili, ST Lingda, ST Hangao, ST Aikang, and ST Sungrow experiencing stock price declines of more than 80% since the beginning of the year. Among them, ST Sungrow has been suspended after 28 consecutive trading day price drops, starting on June 14; ST Aikang announced a suspension starting on June 19; ST Yili also joined the suspension on June 24.

On June 22, ST Yili issued an announcement stating that because its closing price for 20 consecutive trading days from May 24 to June 21 was below 1 yuan, it has triggered the conditions for termination of listing. The company has received a regulatory work letter from the Shanghai Stock Exchange regarding the termination of the company's stock listing on June 21. According to the relevant regulations, the company's stock has been suspended since the market opened on June 24, awaiting a decision by the listing review committee.

The reporter has noticed that since June of this year, several photovoltaic companies such as Tongwei Shares (600438.SH), Longi Green Energy (601012.SH), Trina Solar (688599.SH), GCL-Poly Energy Holdings (002506.SZ), and Linyang Energy (601222.SH) have taken actions to increase holdings or repurchase stocks.

"The company faced severe challenges in its development in 2023," said Longi Green Energy's Chairman Zhong Baoshan in the "Letter to Shareholders" of the annual report, indicating that the rapid release of photovoltaic industry capacity, imbalance of supply and demand structure, and rapid iteration of new technologies in 2023 have led to a significant decrease in industry chain prices, as well as the learning costs associated with the replacement of HPBC new products and the decline in efficiency due to overly rapid organizational expansion.However, despite the cooling of the capital market, the installation volume in the photovoltaic industry still maintains a certain growth.

According to the statistical data of the national electricity industry released by the National Energy Administration on June 28 for the period from January to May, by the end of May, the total installed capacity of power generation nationwide was about 304 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 14.1%. Among them, the installed capacity of solar power generation was about 69 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 52.2%.

Last year, the total output value of China's "new three" represented by photovoltaics exceeded 1.7 trillion yuan. The newly added grid-connected capacity of photovoltaics was 216 gigawatts, equivalent to the total newly installed capacity in the past four years. According to the International Energy Agency's forecast, by 2028, the global renewable energy installation volume will exceed 3,500 GW, of which about 71% will come from photovoltaics.

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