CPIA Annual report: import and Export of China's Photovoltaic products in 2019

SMM Network News:

I. Overview of the export of photovoltaic products in 2019

In 2019, the total export volume of China's photovoltaic products (silicon wafers, battery wafers and modules) was about 20.78 billion US dollars, an increase of 29 percent over the same period last year, breaking through 20 billion US dollars for the first time since the "double reverse", reaching the second highest in history.

Among them, the export volume of silicon wafer, battery wafer and module was 2 billion US dollars, 1.47 billion US dollars and 17.31 billion US dollars respectively. Except for the decline in silicon wafer exports, the export volume of battery wafers and modules increased significantly compared with the same period last year; the export volume was 5.18 billion wafers (about 27.3GW), 10.4GW and 66.6GW respectively, all exceeding the annual export volume of 2018. In 2019, with the advantages of capital, technology, cost and other advantages, China's leading photovoltaic enterprises continue to expand their scale, overseas enterprises are under further pressure and accelerate their withdrawal, and all links of the industrial chain are further concentrated to mainland China. Overseas downstream production lines choose to import silicon wafers, battery wafers and other products from mainland China to meet their production needs. In 2019, the new installed capacity of overseas photovoltaic is about 85GW, an increase of about 37.7% over the same period last year, boosting the demand for component products in overseas markets. With the accelerated pace of Chinese inverter manufacturers going to sea, inverter exports and exports in 2019 were 2.34 billion US dollars and 52.3GW respectively, an increase of 176.7 per cent over the same period last year.

From the perspective of exporting countries / regions, the export value of photovoltaic products to the top 10 export markets was about 13.8 billion US dollars, an increase of 29 percent over the same period last year, accounting for 66.4 percent of the total photovoltaic exports, basically the same as the previous year. Among them, there are four Asian countries and three European countries, Malaysia and Thailand are squeezed out of the top 10, the Netherlands and Spain are in the top 10, and the Netherlands has become the first export market.

From the perspective of export enterprises, nearly 4700 enterprises and trading companies exported photovoltaic products in 2019, an increase of nearly 2000 over 2018. Among them, the export value of photovoltaic products of the top 10 exporters was about 12.38 billion US dollars, accounting for 59.6 percent of the total photovoltaic products exports, down 2.2 percentage points from 2018. The number of enterprises with exports exceeding 1 billion US dollars reached 6, namely Jingke Energy, Ates, Jingao Science and Technology, Trina Solar Energy, Longji Green Energy and Oriental Sunrise, an increase of 2 over 2018.

II. Prospects for the import and export of photovoltaic products in 2020

With the continuous improvement of cost competitiveness of photovoltaic power generation, photovoltaic power generation has become an important part of new installation and an important way of energy transformation in more and more countries. Previously, most industry research institutions have predicted that the scale of photovoltaic installation will increase steadily in 2020. However, in 2020, the sudden "new crown epidemic" spread rapidly around the world, which had a series of effects on the global photovoltaic equipment supply and project construction. Overseas GW markets have been affected by the epidemic, photovoltaic power generation projects in key photovoltaic markets have been delayed or stopped, domestic orders have been delayed or suspended, and international logistics, overseas market expansion and other trade businesses have been restricted. This will lead to a significant decline in market demand, photovoltaic module exports are not optimistic. From the perspective of polysilicon imports, the improvement of domestic polysilicon supply capacity and the withdrawal of overseas polysilicon production capacity are the main reasons for the further decline in the proportion of polysilicon imports. From the perspective of supply and demand, China's polysilicon production basically meets the demand, and imports are only used as a supplement, but high-quality polysilicon materials for high-efficiency batteries still rely on imports.

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