JA Solar, one of the world’s leader in PV industry, has unveiled its financial results for the first quarter of 2016. The company’s performance has increased on a y-o-y base and is aiming to strengthen its business by enhance PERC cell production capacity to 1.4GW by the end of this year.

Capacity expansion plan

According to Baofang Jin, Chariman and CEO of JA Solar, the company’s keys to success in the PV market is its product quality and advanced technology. JA Solar is an award-winning company of China National Energy Administration’s “Front Runner” Program, and has supplied 420MW of high efficiency PV modules, including 150MW of PERC modules, to the program Phase I in Datong, Shanxi province.

To further firm its position as a leader of high-efficiency PV product provider, JA Solar announce to double its PERC production capacity from 700MW to 1.4GW by the end of 2016.

“JA Solar is proud to play a key role in the transformation and improvement of China's PV and manufacturing sectors,” said Jin in JA Solar’s report.

Highlights of financial results

In 1Q16, JA Solar’s total module shipments were 1,128.3MW, including 1,038.3MW of modules and cells to its external clients and 90MW of modules to its own downstream projects. External shipments increased 52.4% y-o-y yet decreased 22.4% Q-o-Q.

PV module shipments were higher that JA Solar’s guidance of 1,000~1,100MW.

Net revenue was RMB 3.5 billion, up 44.4% from 1Q15 but down 24.5% from 4Q15. The sequential decrease was resulted from seasonality in the PV industry.

Total operating expenses were RMB 352.1 million, representing 10.1% of revenue. The operating profit was RMB 223.3 million, up from 1Q15 and slightly down from 4Q15. Operating margin was 6.4%, higher than 6.2% in 1Q15 and 5.7% in 4Q15.

Gross profit of RMB 575.4 million represented a 48.8% y-o-y increase and a 26.6% Q-o-Q decrease. Gross margin was 16.6%, compared to 16.1% in 1Q15 and 17.1% in 4Q15. The sequential decrease in gross margin was mainly due to continuous increase of wafer price during the first three month of 2016.

Net income was RMB 158.0 million, up from RMB 35.0 million in 1Q15 and down from RMB 184.9 million in 4Q15.

JA Solar expects to ship 1.4~1.5GW of PV modules in the second quarter of 2016, including 100MW of module shipments for its downstream projects.

As for the full year of 2016, JA Solar aims to deliver 5.2~5.5GW of PV modules, including 250~300MW for self-developed projects.