‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member GCL System Integrated Technology (GCL-SI) reported a significant shift of its sales to outside China in the first half of 2018, accounting for 45.80% of total sales in the reporting period that also helped return the company to profitability.
GCL-SI reported first half 2018 operating income of approximately RMB 6.08 billion (US$893.8 million approx.), compared to around RMB 6.38 billion in the prior year period, a decline of 4.71%.
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The net profit was RMB 2,558.10 million (US$3.79 million approx.), an increase of 6.53% from the prior year period.
In the first half of 2018, the company's overseas market order book was said to have been full, achieving 1.02GW of overseas market shipments and an operating income of over RMB 2.786 billion (US$409.4 million), a year-on-year increase of 201.88%.
Overseas PV module shipment operating income had been 14% of total income in the first half of 2017.
On a quarterly basis, GCL-SI reported a second quarter 2018 operating income of approximately RMB 4.06 billion (US$596.92 approx.), compared to US$297.09 million in the first quarter of 2018.
Operating income in the second quarter of 2018 was the second highest quarterly record.
The company also benefited from the rush to complete PV Power plants in China before the end of June tariff deadlines but the company noted that the Chinese Governments 5/31 New Deal had reduced domestic demand for PV products, notably in the utility-scale market.
The company noted that utility-scale market in China reached 12.06GW in the first half of 2018, a year-on-year decrease of 30%, while distributed photovoltaic power generation reached 12.24GW, an increase of nearly 72% year-on-year, according to data from China’s National Energy Administration.
GCL-SI said that during the reporting period PV module and component shipments reached 2.34GW, including around a half accounted for by new PV modules such as MBB, bifacial, PERC and other glass-glass products.
