Chinese solar module manufacturer JinkoSolar has announced its Australian subsidiary has signed a one-year $37 million line of credit agreement with the National Australia Bank (NAB). The financing will be used to expand JinkoSolar Australia’s business and supplement the subsidiary’s working capital.
According to JinkoSolar, the line of credit will be reviewed annually and includes $12 million of invoice financing and $25 million of bank guarantees. “As one of the largest banks in Australia, NAB provides strong financial support for us in very exciting times,” Charlie Cao, Chief Financial Officer of JinkoSolar, said. “We will continue to strengthen our business in Australia to support the enormous growth potential clean energy has in Australia.”
The world’s biggest PV module provider already has a prominent presence in both the rooftop and utility-scale solar markets in Australia and has provided its modules to a number of major projects such as the Tailem Bend and Sunraysia solar farms. JinkoSolar has always kept a close eye on the Australian market. Back in 2017, it threw its weight behind Australian perovskite solar cell specialist Greatcell Solar and hoped to commercialize its technology and establish large-scale manufacturing. However, these plans came to nothing after Greatcell entered administration in late 2018.
Globally, JinkoSolar has gone from strength to strength. Last year, it again emerged as the top company for PV module sales. It shipped 14.2 GW of modules in 2019, compared to 11.4 GW in 2018 for overall growth of 25%. It posted an 18.8% revenue increase in fiscal 2019 as its net profit more than doubled to CNY 898.7 million, from CNY 406.5 million a year earlier.
In its 2020 outlook, it reiterated its initial shipment guidance and confirmed its plans to ramp up capacity. The company expects PV module shipments to range between 18 GW and 20 GW this year. Its module capacity is expected to grow from 16 GW at the end of December 2019 to 24 GW by the end of this year. Cell capacity is expected to rise from 11.5 GW to 19 GW by the end of this year, while its wafer output will likely edge up from 10.6 GW to 11 GW.
JinkoSolar claims its capacity expansion plans for 2020 will not be affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. It said that the pandemic had affected supplies of certain raw materials in the first quarter of 2020 that had prompted it to postpone some module shipments to the second quarter. Last month, the manufacturer said its capacity utilization rate had already recovered to 100%.
On Monday, the module giant announced it would donate a million items of masks and other personal protective equipment to the European and Asian countries currently battling the spread of the novel coronavirus.
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