JA Solar is forecasting to ship as much as 40GW of modules this year as it expects its n-type cell capacity expansion to deliver next year.
The integrated solar manufacturer revealed late last week that it expects to more-than-double net profit for H1 2022, rising to a range of RMB1.6 – 1.8 billion (US$237 – 266 million) on the back of surging orders.
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JA revealed it had shipped around 16GW of modules in the first half of this year, with shipments for the full year now expected to fall in the 35 – 40GW range. It attributed the strong performance in the second quarter to surging demand in Europe which has maintained a higher tolerance for sharply increasing PV module prices as power prices on the continent continue to rise.
But the quarter was not without its challenges, specifically the much-documented increase in upstream prices and a shortage of quartz that has further exacerbated supply chain constraints, JA said.
This, in turn, impacted on the profitability of module sales, JA said. The impact of raw material pricing, a lag between the delivery price and current market order price and the need for JA to purchase cells from third-party providers for module assembly all contributed towards difficult trading conditions.
While JA said it expects prices to ease in the second half of the year, the manufacturer is also continuing to bring more cell manufacturing capacity in house with the majority of this now being n-type.
A 1.3GW n-type cell facility is expected to be put into production by the end of August, while a further 5GW of n-type cell capacity is slated to come into production around China’s Spring Festival.
Two 10GW cell projects lined up for Qujing and Yangzhou are also expected to come into production next year, taking JA’s n-type cell capacity to around 26GW.
Meanwhile JA Solar also expects to form a vertically integrated solar supply chain in Southeast Asia with capacity for around 4GW.