(Hong Kong, 28 February 2025) — Xinyi Solar Holdings Limited (the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, "Xinyi Solar" or the "Group"; Stock Code: 00968), a world leading solar glass manufacturer, today announced its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2024.

During the year, the photovoltaic (“PV”) industry in the PRC faced unprecedented challenges. In addition to the trade barriers, a high interest rate environment, and complicated geopolitical conditions, the supply-demand imbalances and the excessive competition led to the significant decreases in the average selling price (“ASP”) of solar glass products. Despite these difficulties, the Group’s solar glass business achieved sales volume growth, but at reduced gross profit margins. The reduced profit margin, together with the impairment provisions for the suspended production facilities and the inventory write-downs, resulted in a decline in net profit of the Group in 2024 as compared to 2023.

In 2024, the Group recorded a consolidated revenue of RMB21,921.4 million, representing a decrease of 9.3% as compared to 2023. Gross profit decreased by 46.3% to RMB 3,473.1 million, with gross profit margin of 15.8% (2023: 26.8%), primarily driven by a reduction in profit contribution from the solar glass business, which fully offset the increase from the solar farm business. Meanwhile, profit attributable to equity holders of the Company decreased by 73.8% to RMB1,008.2 million.

Meanwhile, as part of its efforts to optimise its bank financing combination, the Group continued to re-finance the Hong Kong dollar bank loans by RMB bank loans in 2024, taking advantage of the low RMB borrowing rates compared to those of Hong Kong dollars or US dollars. As a result, the proportion of RMB bank loans increased to 84.3% as of 31 December 2024 from 33.8% as of 31 December 2023. 

In 2024, the Group’s solar glass business achieved a 9.6% year-on-year growth in sales volume (in tonnes). Revenue from sales of solar glass decreased by 11.9% year-on-year to RMB18,820.0 million, mainly due to the significant drop in the ASP, partially offset by the increase in sales volume.

The decline in profit contribution from the solar glass business was primarily attributable to (i) significant decreases in the ASP compared to the previous year; (ii) impairment losses on property, plant and equipment (“PPE”) of RMB392.9 million; and (iii) provision for the write-down of inventories amounting to RMB159.3 million based on the lower of cost and net realisable value. Such decline was partially offset by (i) a reduction in procurement costs for certain raw materials and energy, such as soda ash, silica sand, and natural gas and (ii) efficiency improvements achieved through the ramp-up of new capacity, tighter cost controls, and streamlined operations.

The imbalance between the supply and demand resulted in a sharp reversal of market conditions, putting significant pressure on the profit performance of the Group’s solar glass business in the second half of 2024, especially in the fourth quarter.

In response to the market changes, the Group has consistently enhanced various measures on risk management and cost controls, and adjusted the inventory levels, for the purpose of maintaining a balance between production and sales, and carefully monitored the recovery risks associated with the trade receivables. At the same time, the Group has promptly adjusted its solar glass production capacity. The actual number of the new production lines put into operation in 2024 was reduced from the original plan of six lines (with the daily melting capacity of 6,400 tonnes) to four lines (with the daily melting capacity of 4,400 tonnes). Additionally, the operating capacity decreased to 23,200 tonnes/day as of 31 December 2024 from 27,000 tonnes/day as of 30 June 2024. These adjustments enable the Group to reallocate its resources, leverage its technological and cost advantages, enhance overall competitiveness, and navigate the market fluctuations effectively.

Regarding the solar farm business, the Group completed the grid connection of two utility-scale ground-mounted solar farm projects with a total capacity of 300 megawatts (“MW”) in the first half of 2024, with no additional projects completed in the second half. Due to the greater uncertainty in the expected investment returns of solar farm projects, the Group slowed down the construction of new solar power projects in the second half of 2024, while still actively seeking possible projects and conducting preliminary feasibility studies.

The amount of sales revenue from the solar farm segment increased steadily by 12.1%to RMB3,017.3 million in 2024, mainly attributable to the new capacity increase during the first half of 2024 and the full-year contribution from the capacity added in 2023, partially offset by the lower weighted average feed-in-tariff.

Regarding the disposal of solar farm projects, the Group completed the disposal of the solar farm projects with a total capacity of 860MW to Xinyi Energy Holdings Limited ("Xinyi Energy") in 2024.

As of 31 December 2024, the cumulated approved grid-connected capacity of the Group’s solar farm projects was 6,244MW, of which 5,841MW was for the utility-scale ground mounted projects, and 403MW was for the distributed generation projects for the Group’s own consumption or sale to the grid. In terms of the ownership, the solar farm projects with a capacity of 4,555MW were held through Xinyi Energy; solar farm projects with a capacity of 1,589MW were held through certain wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Company. A solar farm project with a capacity of 100MW was held by an entity owned as to 50% by the Group.

Currently, the development of the solar glass industry is still hindered by the imbalances in the supply and demand as well as the intensive competitions. Furthermore, as the first quarter is traditionally a low season for solar installations, it is anticipated that the Group’s business environment will remain challenging in the short term. Reducing the production capacity to address the supply-demand imbalance, stabilise the market prices, and enhance the overall profitability are the consensus and the top priority of the industry.

However, a new outlook may emerge as the industry capacity adjustments take effect. Due to the energy consumption and emission controls, as well as the implementation of the capacity replacement policies and hearing measures, the increase in the production capacity in the solar glass industry is restricted. More encouragingly, the industry’s capacity decreased in the second half of 2024 in response to the market conditions. This trend is expected to continue in the early of 2025, gradually narrowing the gap to the supply-demand equilibrium point.

The Group’s planning on the solar glass production capacity depends on the changes in the global demand for the PV installations, the development of the solar value chain and its own development strategy. As of the end of 2024, the Group’s total daily melting capacity for solar glass was 32,200 tonnes, comprising 23,200 tonnes in operation, 4,000 tonnes that the Group preliminarily plans to commence in 2025 subject to the market conditions, and 5,000 tonnes pending further arrangements. Concerning the new production bases, two solar glass production lines are currently under construction in Indonesia and are expected to commence production in the first quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, the development of the new production bases in Yunnan and Jiangxi Provinces in China has been put on hold. The Group will continue to explore other suitable locations for its new production capacity in China and overseas and adjust the construction timeline and commissioning schedule for the new production capacity according to market trend.

As for the solar farm business, the Group will adhere to the principle of quality and will give due consideration to investment return when evaluating new investment projects. However, the increase in the mandatory energy storage and the market-based electricity sales requirements, along with the land supply constraints and the grid connection issues, have created uncertainty to the project investment returns. Consequently, the Group has not yet established a new grid connection capacity target for 2025.