Yingli Green becomes largest solar company; exceeds 2012 module shipment guidance of 2.2GW

Yingli Green has surpassed Suntech Power Holdings as the largest PV company in the world, based on revised full-year module shipment guidance.

 

In advance of its fourth quarter 2012 financial results, Yingli Green said that better than expected module shipments in the quarter had resulted in full-year shipments exceeding its 2.2GW guidance.

 

Strong demand in the fourth quarter meant module shipments reached a new historical high, although the company does not provide quarterly shipment figures. 

 

Yingli Green also tentatively acknowledged that the full-year shipment level would mean that the company has surpassed shipments from Suntech Power Holdings for the first time and replaced its Chinese rival as the number 1 module manufacturer in the PV industry in 2012. 

 

Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy said, “Despite the tremendous challenges to the global PV industry, we're extremely inspired to have continuously expanded our market share throughout 2012 not only in the existing markets but also a number of emerging markets. According to public data to date, we believe that Yingli has evolved into the world's largest PV module supplier.”

 

Yingli Green has exceeded shipments of its rivals in each quarter of 2012. PV-Tech had originally highlighted the possibility that Yingli Green would replace Suntech in the top rankings after both companies released first quarter 2012 financial results and revised shipment guidance for the year. 

 

In August, 2012 a guest blog from leading market research firm, Solarbuzz, also forecasted that Yingli Green would surpass Suntech in the rankings. The guest blog also ranked in the PV-Tech top 10 blogs of the year. 

 

Yingli Green had originally guided 2012 module shipments to be in the range of 2.4GW-2.5GW.