Driven by increase in sales of its major products, photovoltaic modules and monocrystalline silicon wafers, plus the climb in average selling price of silicon wafers, the Group's revenue increased by 17.4% to RMB7,105.0 million, with total external shipment volume up 7.8% year-on-year. It achieved a significant turnaround with profit attributable to owners of the parent at approximately RMB193.2 million when compared with a loss recorded last year, mainly due to substantial increase in its high-efficiency production capacity and economies of scale, which helped widen its overall gross profit margin.
During the year under review, as a result of the increase in sales of monocrystalline solar wafers which boast a higher profit margin, the Group's gross profit rose by 50.1% to RMB879.1 million, with gross profit margin improved to 12.4%. As such, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation ("EBITDA") of the Group surged by 189.7% to RMB799.7 million
In 2021, the Group continued to invest in and upgrade existing production capacity which, together with the economies of scale reaped, saw its operating profit increase significantly, with net cash flows from operating activities up by a substantial 82.8% to RMB1,030.4 million in 2021 (2020: RMB563.5 million).
Business Review
Silicon ingots and wafers business
During the year under review, since monocrystalline products have advantages over multicrystalline products in photovoltaic power generation, the market share of monocrystalline products continued to increase rapidly. With most of the Group's monocrystalline silicon ingot products reserved for internal use, the external shipment volume of them was 414.4 MW (2020: 710.8 MW), whereas that of monocrystalline silicon wafers increased significantly to 4,087.0 MW (2020: 3,145.8MW), an over 30% climb against the previous year.
Apart from traditional monocrystalline P-type products, the Group also manufactures monocrystalline N-type products with higher conversion efficiencies. As TOPCON cells and heterojunction HJT cells with monocrystalline N-type silicon wafer base are expected to become the mainstream next-generation photovoltaic cells, to capture that trend, the Group managed to accomplish technical breakthrough and product marketisation of monocrystalline N-type silicon ingot and has started supplying N-type silicon ingots and wafers to domestic and foreign customers.
The Group's production base for monocrystalline silicon ingot and monocrystalline silicon wafer in Qujing, Yunnan, the PRC, started mass production during the year. As the facility enjoys various local government preferential investment policies, and more importantly, the decrease in local electricity cost, being the major manufacturing cost of ingot-pulling, of more than 50% compared to the major production base in Jinzhou, Liaoning. That can help improve the Group's overall gross profit margin. Therefore, the Group has continued to expand the production capacity there to meet the rapid growth of customer demand. As at year end, the annual production capacity of monocrystalline silicon ingots and monocrystalline silicon wafers of the facility were 4.3 GW and 2.5 GW respectively.
Module business
To concentrate resources on developing more niche products, the Group adjusted its operating strategy, ceasing manufacturing solar cells last year and moved its focus onto upstream monocrystalline silicon wafers (ingot) and downstream modules as its two major products.
During the year, the Group continued to expand module production capacity in Yancheng, Jiangsu, to meet the needs of module customers and further strengthen economies of scale. As at year end, the module production capacity of Yancheng, Jiangsu reached 5.4 GW, out of the 7.2 GW total of the Group. The production base also enjoys various local government preferential investment policies, plus the Group can take advantage of significantly lowering the investment in capital expenditure by renting plant buildings. Moreover, the area around the Yangtze River Delta is where raw and auxiliary materials that the Group needs agglomerate, meaning the Group has advantage in procurement.
Excellent product quality and price competitiveness allow the Group to secure stable and sizeable customers. Modules were mainly sold externally to large state-owned enterprises and international multinational enterprises, such as State Power Investment Corporation ("SPIC"), SHARP Corporation ("SHARP"), Xinyi Glass Holdings Limited and Xinyi Solar Group and CGN New Energy Holdings Co., Ltd., etc. The Group has been SHARP's largest processing service partner for photovoltaic module for nine consecutive years and has been cooperating in continually expanding module sales to foreign customers.
Prospects
The Group embraces the "one base, two wings" strategic layout, with its base in Jinzhou, Liaoning, and Qujing in Yunnan and Yancheng in Jiangsu as its two wings. The layout has given it low-cost and high-efficiency productivity advantages and become one of the driving forces for the gross profit margins growth of its monocrystalline silicon ingots and silicon wafers. It expects that, by the end of 2022, the annual production capacity of monocrystalline silicon ingot and silicon wafers in Qujing, Yunnan will be increased to 6.0 GW and 3.6 GW, representing 81% and 49% of the Group's total annual production capacity of the products, respectively. On top of boosting the Group's gross profit margin, the layout will also enable the Group to fully unleash its technological advantages and achieve progress.
Regarding module production capacity, by the end of 2022, the annual production capacity of the plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu will increase to 6.4 GW, taking the Group's overall annual module production capacity to 8.2 GW.
In addition, the Group has been actively expanding the end-user power plants construction and application business, which has not only driven sales of module products from bottom-up, but also it will spread the profit of construction and operation of photovoltaic system businesses, helping improve the Group's overall profitability. Apart from having internal photovoltaic power plant system established and run by its wholly owned subsidiaries, the Group also plans to form joint ventures with companies from other industries to develop BAPV and BIPV business.
Mr Tan Wenhua, Chairman of Solargiga, said, "In 2022, newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity is expected to continue to grow rapidly worldwide. That plus supportive government policies will see medium- and long-term demand for photovoltaic products climb robustly in the PRC and the global market. Marketisation will continue for photovoltaic products and the industry will move away from policy subsidies towards self-sustainable development. Technological progress will help reduce power generation cost conducive to achieving grid parity, and in turn will draw explosive demand growth.
"With proven business strategy in place, we are well prepared to apply our existing advantages to capture the tremendous opportunities in the photovoltaic industry in the good times ahead, and also help China achieve her 'carbon neutrality' goal by 2060 and contribute to sustainable development of the world."
About Solargiga Energy Holdings Limited (HKEX: 757)
Solargiga Energy Holdings Limited is one of the leading manufacturers of solar energy monocrystalline photovoltaic products in the PRC. Through advantages in vertical integration, the Group focuses on manufacturing monocrystalline silicon wafers and photovoltaic modules, and designing and installing photovoltaic systems. The majority of the Group's products are currently sold to domestic state-owned enterprises and large multinational corporations with stringent quality requirements.
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