JinkoSolar reported total shipments over 1.9GW and revenue of US$1.17 billion in 2013, with full-year profitability secured and becomes the first China-based tier 1 PV manufacturer to do so after more than two years of losses within the sector.

The company reported total solar product shipments in 2013 of 1,933.1MW, comprising 1,765.1MW of solar modules, 54.8MW of silicon wafers and 113.2MW of solar cells.

Total solar product shipments in the fourth quarter of 2013 were 586.3MW, comprising of 533.3MW of solar modules, 7.3MW of silicon wafers and 45.7MW of solar cells.

Total revenue in 2013 was US$1.17 billion, an increase of 47.6% from the previous year. Total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013 reached US$361.4 million, representing an increase of 11.5% from the third quarter of 2013 and 87.5% from the fourth quarter of 2012.

"Having recorded our third straight quarter of profitability, I am proud to report another strong performance as we continue to expand our manufacturing and downstream businesses," stated Kangping Chen, JinkoSolar's CEO. "From the third quarter we delivered on our promise to achieve net profitability for the entire year. We closed out 2013 on a stronger footing by further cutting costs and improving gross margins for the fourth quarter to an industry-leading 24.7%. With total product shipments for the year reaching an all-time high of approximately 2GW and a new revenue stream from our rapidly expanding downstream business, we have only increased our ambitions."

JinkoSolar reported a gross margin in fourth quarter of 2013 of 24.7%, compared with 22.3% in the third quarter of 2013 and 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2012. Gross margin was 20.3% for the full-year 2013, compared with 4.8% in 2012.

"As the market evolves, we are devoting a substantial amount of our resources towards JinkoSolar's transformation into a one-stop energy solution provider,” added Chen. “During the quarter, we connected a total of 108MW worth of solar PV projects to the grid through five solar PV projects in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Gansu Province.”

PV projects

The company confirmed its target of reaching 213MW worth of solar PV projects connected to the grid by the end of 2013. JinkoSolar said that it was targeting to double project completions in 2014 to over 400MW and had a PV project pipeline of 700MW.

“With gross and net margins for our downstream business exceeding 60% and 30% respectively, the Board of Directors has authorised an ambitious plan to explore strategic alternatives to JinkoSolar's downstream solar PV project business,” noted Chen.

2014 guidance

JinkoSolar guided PV module shipments in the first quarter of 2014 to be between 440MW and 470MW, down from 533.3MW in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Module shipments in 2014 are expected to be in the range of 2.3GW to 2.5GW, which will require around 2.7GW to 2.9GW in production capacity this year, according to the company.

Management noted that the company expects to expand in-house module assembly capacity to between 3GW to 3.5GW by the end of 2014. It would also look for other distressed assets to acquire to add capacity in 2014.