Chinese solar manufacturing giant LONGi posted RMB1.26 billion (US$174.8 million) in losses in its Q3 2024 financial results, as solar manufacturers continue to brace against difficult market conditions.
LONGi posted RMB20 billion (US$2.7 billion) in revenues for the quarter, bringing its cumulative revenues for the first nine months of 2024 to RMB58.6 billion (US$8.1 billion). Net losses so far this year are around RMB6.7 billion (US$929 million), based on the company’s previous quarterly updates.
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LONGi said this quarter’s results reflect “a gradual reduction in losses as the company progresses through a challenging industry cycle and enhances its operational efficiency”.
So far this year, the company has shipped 82.80GW of silicon wafers and 51.23GW of modules. Despite the challenging market situation, LONGi’s module shipments have increased 17.7% year-on-year, the company said – a trend which has tracked across most of the leading Chinese PV manufacturers.
The biggest solar manufacturers have all posted negative financial results in the last year as average selling prices (ASP) across the supply chain have plummeted to near or below-cost levels. This has gone hand in hand with ongoing oversupply in China, which can reportedly produce over two times the global demand for solar PV products.
In March 2024, LONGi’s chairman Zhong Baoshen publicly urged the Chinese government to act to combat low PV module prices, which he said had become “unsunstainable”. Later that month, the company was reported to be laying off around 30% of its workforce.
Despite this situation, major players like LONGi, JinkoSolar and Canadian Solar have all increased their shipment volumes so far this year.
LONGi said that it has bolstered its research and development (R&D) spending over the last five years “to enhance core competitiveness” and “in response to industry pressures”. A renewed focus on back contact (BC) technology has seen the company ship 13.7GW of BC modules so far this year. LONGi said that Chinese firms including itself have expanded BC production to nearly 12GW.
Looking forward, the company said it forecasts “improvements in the industry landscape as outdated capacity is phased out and some projects are postponed or terminated.”
Earlier this year, PV Tech head of research Finlay Colville updated his predictions of a solar market downturn – where capital expenditure drops off and companies face finances in the red. Colville predicts that this market situation will extend into 2026.
