Longi posts 60% annual revenue increase despite polysilicon pricing sensitivity

Longi Green Energy, a crystalline silicon wafer and solar module producer, posted 128.9 billion yuan ($18.66 billion) in net revenue for its fiscal year 2022, its first year achieving over 100 billion yuan in revenue, and representing a 60% yearly increase from 80.93 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) of net revenue from FY 2021.

For Q1 2023, Longi recorded $4.09 billion of revenue, up 52.35% from the comparable quarter a year ago.

For 2022, Longi produced 85 GW of monocrystalline silicon wafers, including 42.5 GW for external sales and 42.5 GW for internal use. Despite seeing 2022 pricing pressure as the cost of polysilicon rose, Longi shipped 46.8 GW of silicon modules, representing three years of sequential growth from 24.5 GW shipped in 2020.

In 2022, Longi adjusted the progress of capacity expansion as impacted by the price surge of polysilicon and demand fluctuations, maintaining wafer, cell and module capacity at a year over year growth of 25%.

Annual highlights: 

• Set R&D efficiency for heterojunction technology cells at 26.81%, currently the highest efficiency of silicon solar cells worldwide. 
• Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells efficiency reached 29.55%, selected as the highest cell efficiency in China for 2022 by the China Renewable Energy Society . 
• The busbar-free HPBC technology for the distributed generation market achieved mass production efficiency of more than 25%. 

In 2022, Longi invested $1.033 billion into research and development, representing 5.5% of annual revenue, the company said in its annual report, while it currently holds 2,132 authorized patents.  

By region, the solar silicon supplier shipped 11 GW of modules in 2022 to the European market, 30 GW of modules to Asia, and 2.6 GW of modules to Latin America.   

As the new capacity of polysilicon increased into early 2023, the price began to fall in mid-March, with cost pressure on silicon easing as well.

The price of modules is less than 26 cents per watt, and Longi said the return rates of solar power projects are attractive for developers, which will stimulate the solar demand further this year. 

2023 Outlook 

Longi sees annual growth bringing the company to production of more than 160 billion yuan ($23.15 billion) of 2023 revenue. For 2023, the company projects shipments of 130 GW of wafers and 85 GW of modules/cells this year, in addition to production of 190 GW of wafers and 130 GW of modules.

Shanghai Stock Exchange-listed Longi traded at the equivalent of $4.85 per share today, down year over year from $7.16 per share on May 9, 2022. The company has a $36.37 billion market capitalization with more than 5,000 customers in more than 150 countries/

In January, Longi said it will invest approximately $6.6 billion to more than double its PV wafer and cell capacity. It plans to build new wafer and cell factories. Construction of the new facilities in Xixian New District, Shaanxi province should take no longer than 18 months and will be handled in multiple phases, with no phase lasting longer than six months. In March Longi Solar and Invenergy announced plans to construct a 5 GW manufacturing facility in Pataskala, Ohio, via a newly founded company, Illuminate USA.

Longi expects its new factories to be commissioned by 2025, creating more than 15,000 jobs.