Leading solar manufacturer LONGi has revealed it expects to finish 2022 with solar wafer, cell and module manufacturing capacity of 150GW, 60GW and 85GW respectively.
The expansion, announced alongside solar module shipment guidance for the year of 50 – 60GW, would see its manufacturing capacities soar by between 40 – 60% year-on-year, while group revenue is also expected to soar by more than 23% and exceed RMB100 billion for the first time.
LONGi also expects to ship 90 – 100GW of solar wafers in 2022.
Reporting its Q1 2022 results earlier this week, LONGi said it shipped 18.36GW of wafers, split around 55:45 between internal (9.94GW) and external (8.42GW) shipments.
Module shipments for the quarter meanwhile stood at 6.44GW. By means of comparison, JinkoSolar last week confirmed its Q1 2022 module shipments to have stood at just over 8GW, however Jinko is forecasting to ship far fewer modules over the course of the year, its 2022 forecast currently standing at around 35 – 40GW including shipments of cells and wafers.
Quarterly revenue rose 17.3% year-on-year to RMB18.6 billion, reflecting higher shipments and prices for both modules and wafers, LONGi having raised prices for its wafers no fewer than five times in the reporting period and seven times since the start of the year.
LONGi also stated that its new cell technology is planned to enter production in Q3 this year, the company noting that it invested some RMB4.4 billion into R&D last year, equivalent to around 5.4% of its total revenue.