Leading polysilicon and solar wafer producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings reported group sales of US$4.8 billion and returned to a profit of US$277.9 million in 2014, operating its polysilicon and solar wafer operations at full capacity.

GCL-Poly reported full-year polysilicon production of 66,876MT, up from 50,440MT in 2013, exceeding nameplate capacity of 65,000MT.

Polysilicon shipments to third parties totalled 15,443MT, down 5.4% and generated revenue of US$335.3 million in 2014. The company reported average selling prices of polysilicon were US$21.7/kg in 2014, compared to US$17.4/kg in 2013.

GCL-Poly reported full-year solar wafer production of 13,098MW, slightly exceeding nameplate capacity of 13,000MW, which was expanded by 1GW through the year.

The company reported wafer sales of 12,909MW for 2014, compared to production of 8,827MW of wafers in 2013. The company reported average selling prices of US$0.22/W in 2014, compared to US$0.21/W in 2013.

Total revenue of the Solar Material Business in 2014 amounted to approximately HK$25,455.3 million (US$3.28 billion), representing an increase of 40.5% from HK$18,120.8 million in 2013.

The net profit margin of the Solar Material Business was 8.9%, compared with a net operating loss margin of 6.8% in 2013.

PV Power plants

GCL-Poly reported revenue from its Solar Farm Business of HK$688.3 million in 2014.

The company had approximately 100MW solar farms targeted to commence operation by the end of 2016. The group’s total solar farms in the US remained at 18 MW at the end of 2014, unchanged from 2013. The Joint venture of the group obtained 144MW power purchase agreements in the US in 2014 and 150MW of solar farms in South Africa, which was partnered with and commenced operation in the mid-year of 2014 with total effective ownership of 9.7%.

GCL-Poly operated 10 solar farms in China with an installed capacity 353MW, up from 289.3MW in 2013. The increase was said to be mainly due to the commencement of operations of two ground-mounted solar farms with 20MW and 30MW of capacity in Shanxi province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region respectively.

Revenue from GCL New Energy, formerly known as Same Time Holdings, which was acquired in May, 2014 totalled HK$1,024.0 million. Most of the solar farms acquired were said to have achieved on-grid connection in late December 2014, which totalled around 410MW.

GCL-Poly said it expected polysilicon prices to remain stable in 2015, due to expected lower foreign imported polysilicon and growing downstream PV market demand.

Financing

The only cloud over GCL-Poly remained its need to seek new capital and replace existing lines of credit. However, management stressed in its annual report that it was working with a number of banks to address the issue and was confident it would have sufficient liquidity to continue selectively expanding its downstream business in 2015.