(Yicai Global) Aug. 28 -- Shares of Longi Green Energy Technology, the world’s largest supplier of monocrystalline silicon, hit an all-time high after the company’s first-half profit doubled from a year earlier on strong demand and as new projects fired up.

The Xi’an-based company’s stock price [SHA: 601012] rose 3.9 percent today to end the week at CNY62.96 (USD9.17), after reaching an intraday record of CNY63.65.

Net profit was CNY4.1 billion (USD598.5 million) in the six months ended June 30, the company said in an earnings report released yesterday. Revenue jumped 43 percent to CNY20.1 billion. It gave no forward guidance.

A number of new projects coming online during the period and strong demand for products were the main reasons for the company’s sustained rapid growth, it said. Longi’s capacity to make monocrystalline silicon wafers is about half of the global total. The company is also expanding business to downstream solar modules, solar cells and solar power plants.

Its annual production capacity of monocrystalline silicon wafers rose from 42 gigawatts at the end of last year to 55 GW at the end of June, and annual output of monocrystalline modules also rose from 14 GW to about 25 GW, the report showed.

That provides a solid foundation for the rapid growth of the firm’s major product output and shipments, it said.

Longi’s monocrystalline silicon wafer output totaled 4.4 billion units in the first half, up 54 percent, with shipments, including external sales and self-use, tallying around 4 billion units, compared with 2.9 billion in the same period last year.

The firm’s monocrystalline battery module output was 8 gigawatts, up 125 percent, and shipments topped 7.1 GW, compared with 3.46 GW a year ago.

Editor: Peter Thomas