(Yicai) April 9 -- Shares of TBEA fell after the Chinese power transformer manufacturer said its net profit shrank nearly 33 percent last year from the previous one because of a sharp decline in the average price of its polysilicon products.

TBEA [SHA: 600089] closed 4.8 percent down at CNY14.51 (USD2.01) in Shanghai today, after earlier plunging as much as 7.5 percent.

Net profit was CNY10.7 billion (USD1.5 billion) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, compared with CNY15.9 billion the year before, the Changji-based company announced yesterday. Revenue rose 1.8 percent to CNY98.1 billion.

TBEA’s main businesses were power transmission and transformation, new energy, energy, and new material last year, with the new energy and engineering business alone accounting for about 30 percent of the total despite shrinking over 18 percent from the previous year.

Gross profit margin was 31.95 percent last year, down 25.87 percentage points from the year before, TBEA noted.

Polysilicon prices plunged in China last year due to an oversupply in the industry. Prices sank 67 percent to CNY58,300 (USD8,060) per ton late last year from CNY176,200 (USD24,360) per ton in early January last year, as the polysilicon output soared 78 percent to nearly 1.5 million tons in the period, according to data from the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.

If the production capacity in the industry continues to expand, polysilicon prices will decline further, affecting companies’ profitability, Chinese polysilicon supplier Daqo New Energy recently said in its 2023 annual report.

Editor: Futura Costaglione