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Chinese PV Industry Brief: Carmaker BYD unit sales down 20%, Xinyi Glass makes offer for China Glass

BYD more than doubled November vehicle sales but posted a drop in January-to-November business. Xinyi Glass is looking to grow its assets, while GCL-Poly is raising capital.

Carmaker BYD yesterday announced monthly revenue figures which showed pure electric vehicle sales of 18,220 last month, up from 8,000 in November 2019. The year-to-date figure of 111,488 was down on the 139,246 sold in the first 11 months of last year.

“New energy” bus sales leapt from 432 in November last year to 1,025 this time around, with year-to-date figures almost doubling, from 4,100 to 8,121. Traditional vehicle sales were up 4% by the 11-month comparison, lifted by SUV sales, which rose from 100,176 in January-to-November last year to 153,794 this time, although the November-only figure of 20,479 SUV sales in 2019 fell slightly to 20,061 last month.

Float glass manufacturer Xinyi Glass Holdings, the parent of PV glass business Xinyi Solar, has made a HK$1.64 billion (US$212 million) takeover offer for rival China Glass Holdings Ltd. Xinyi has offered HK$0.90 (US$0.12) per share in China Glass, for HK$1.63 billion; plus HK$54,500 (US$7,000) for every unredeemed convertible bond, for an extra HK$13.6 million, and HK$3,000 (US$387) for every unactioned share option at a rate of HK$0.0001 (US$0.00001) per share.

The share offer represents a 17.4% discount on Wednesday’s closing price of HK$1.09 per share and a 28.6% discount on the unaudited net asset value revealed by China Glass at the end of June. The share offer could rise to HK$1.67 billion if all eligible convertible bonds and share options are auctioned. China Glass shareholders have been promised details of the offer by Christmas Eve.

Polysilicon maker GCL-Poly continued its fundraising effort on Wednesday when it raised RMB718 million (US$110 million) by selling minor stakes held by two of its subsidiaries in leasing business Sino IC Leasing. The sale price of RMB728 million ($111 million) for the 3.2% stake held by investment holding entity Apex Investment and the 2.8% interest of poly making subsidiary Jiangsu Zhongneng made for net income of RMB718 million after costs and will represent a book loss of RMB9.54 million ($1.46 million) on the investment for GCL. The stakes were sold to technology development entity Zhejiang Qixin Technology Ltd, which has state-owned entities as its largest, 38% shareholder.

Longi announced on Thursday that it had reached a new milestone of 20 GW of solar PV shipments by the end of November, one month earlier than its original planned 2020 target. Longi thus became the first module manufacturer to achieve 20 GW of shipments in a single fiscal year.

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According to PV market research institute PV InfoLink, in the first half of the year, Longi achieved module shipments of 6.58 GW, with a YoY increase of 106% over 2019. However, the company’s score rocketed to around 13.42 GW in the following five months. Longi will very probably rank No.1 for module shipments in 2020, surpassing the champion of the past several years, Jinko Energy.

Guangzhou, one of China’s largest cities of China and the capital of Guangdong Province, is set to provide extra subsidies for distributed PV. According to the newly released policy, the local government will provide financial subsidies directly to distributed solar PV plants installed between 2020 and 2025 as part of the city’s efforts to encourage the development of renewable energy.

Those installed on the roofs of private buildings will receive RMB0.15 (US$0.023) per KWh, and RMB0.30 (0.046) per KWh for installed on roofs of public buildings. The benefits will be available for a total of six years. All distributed PV plants installed in the period can apply and get the financial support. Theoretically speaking, plants installed this year are also included in the subsidy program’s scope.

Shangji Automation has signed a long-term purchasing agreement with Canadian Solar Inc. (CSI). According to the deal, which was announced Wednesday, CSI will purchase 20,000 MT mono-crystalline cast from the Shanghai-listed PV company from December 2020 to December 2022. The contract is valued at around RMB3.5 billion (US$536 million). The parties will negotiate the unit price on a monthly basis.

Shenzhen listed PV company Topray Solar announced Thursday that it had signed a transaction agreement with the local government of Cheng Cheng county in Shaanxi Province for the sale of a 52 MW capacity solar farm. The total contract is valued at RMB370 million (US$56.6 million) and the Cheng Cheng government will make the payment in installments over the next six years.

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Source: pv magazine