on December 15, the commissioning ceremony of Sany silicon energy Zhuzhou 5GW N TOPCon solar cell manufacturing base was successfully held in Sany energy equipment industrial park. The project was completed and put into production in only 152 days, creating the fastest "Zhuzhou speed" for projects above 1 billion yuan in Hunan Province ".

this is a microcosm of Sany Group's accelerated layout of photovoltaic business, and it is also an important part of Sany Group's All in's third venture and transformation into a green energy industry.

Liang Wengen, the founder and former chairman of Sany Group, once talked about the three entrepreneurial experiences of Sany Group, and put forward the goal of trillions of market value before "retreating behind the scenes. "In 1986, Liang Wengen led the start-up team to set up Lianyuan Maotang Welding Material Factory, the predecessor of Sany Group, which put welding materials first in the market. In 1994, Sany started its second venture. From Lianyuan to Changsha, from special materials to equipment manufacturing, Sany Heavy Industry completed its equity reform and became the top three global construction machines."

Today, Sany Group has launched its third venture, accelerating the strategic transformation of "globalization, digital intelligence, and low-carbon", and comprehensively deploying the wind, light, storage, and hydrogen new energy industry chain and some core equipment technologies. In 2022, Sany Group officially entered the photovoltaic industry and established Sany Silicon Energy. Since 2023, the company has further accelerated the construction of vertically integrated production capacity and promoted large-scale landing.

Regarding the progress of Sany Silicon Energy's vertical integration industrial layout, Sany Silicon Energy told the reporter of China Business News that it is relatively busy near the end of the year, and the data is still to be counted, so it is inconvenient to accept interviews. An industry insider told reporters that this year Sany Silicon Energy's photovoltaic business is still in the initial stage of development, with a vertical integration capacity of 5GW, and module shipments are expected to be about 300 MW, and the performance will be better next year.

The "photovoltaic speed" of transformation

After more than 30 years of development, Sany Group has three listed companies, Sany Heavy Industry (600031. SH), Sany International (00631. HK) and Sany Heavy Energy (688349. SH), which are mainly engaged in the manufacture of concrete machinery and mining machinery, mining equipment and logistics equipment, wind turbine manufacturing, etc. As of December 15, the market value of the three listed companies was 108.5 billion yuan, 23.7 billion Hong Kong dollars and 34.2 billion yuan respectively.

according to the statement made by the rotating chairman of trinity group and director of trinity international to Wenbo at the performance conference in the first half of 2023: "trinity group will lay out all the new industries for future transformation and development in trinity international, including photovoltaic, hydrogen energy, battery equipment, smart mines, etc., and attach great importance to, support and hope for the future development of trinity international."

trinity international's 2023 semi-annual report shows: "on June 30, 2022, the group (note: trinity international and its subsidiaries) and trinity group have reached an agreement to purchase 70% equity of trinity silicon energy and 99.9 partnership equity of Changsha silicon exhibition. Changsha silicon exhibition holds 15% equity of trinity silicon energy, all of which are ultimately held by trinity group."

As the main company actually carrying out photovoltaic business, Sany Silicon Energy has been vigorously promoting the construction of photovoltaic vertical integration capacity since 2022, and has demonstrated extraordinary "Sany speed" in Zhuzhou, Hunan and Shuozhou, Shanxi ".

in November 2022, the first monocrystalline silicon rod produced by sany silicon energy was released in Zhuzhou. In December of the same year, photovoltaic module products went offline. Since then, Sany Silicon has opened up the photovoltaic industry chain and has the production capacity from crystal pulling, slicing, batteries to modules. It also announced that the company has officially entered the vertical integration camp of photovoltaic industry.

in October 2023, the first n-type TOPCon solar cell produced by sany silicon energy 5GW Zhuzhou base was successfully offline, marking the formal formation of the n-type integrated industrial layout. Two months later, Sany Silicon Energy Zhuzhou 5GW N-type TOPCon solar cell manufacturing base project was put into operation.

Compared with Hunan, Sany Silicon Energy's photovoltaic manufacturing landing speed in Shanxi is also not slow. In September 2023, Sany Shuozhou Phase I 5GW monocrystalline silicon project was put into operation. On October 6, the first monocrystalline silicon rod product of the project went offline, which also laid the foundation for the company to achieve large-scale landing of monocrystalline silicon rods in Shanxi in the future.

then, on October 27, a cooperation agreement was signed between Sany Shuozhou phase ii large-size ultra-thin monocrystalline silicon wafer project and Sany group Pinglu district distributed photovoltaic power generation project. On December 9, the first silicon wafer of Sany Shuozhou Phase II ultra-thin monocrystalline silicon wafer project was successfully offline, which also means that the project has officially entered the trial production stage, laying the foundation for mass production of the project.

Sany Silicon Energy released the article "Sany Group Steadily Marches into Photovoltaic Industry" through the official public number in April 2023, saying that Sany Group has more than 10GW of silicon wafer, battery and module factories under construction. Zhang Chun, deputy general manager of Sany Silicon Energy, said in an interview with industry media reporters that this year, the entire industrial chain layout of 5 to 10GW will be completed on the basis of the pilot line, and it is planned to complete the entire industrial chain layout of 50GW in three years (including domestic and foreign).

In May 2023, SNEC's 16th (2023) International Solar Photovoltaic and Smart Energy Conference and Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as the "SNEC2023") was held in Shanghai. At that time, Sany Silicon Energy also made its first public appearance.

Dai Qinghua, director of Sany Group and chairman of Sany Silicon Energy, also attended and spoke at the SNEC2023 Global Green Energy Leaders Dialogue. "Sany's entry into the photovoltaic industry stems from its confidence in the future of new energy. We are currently in the super technology window period of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the fourth industrial revolution superimposed on the third energy revolution. As the third entrepreneurship of Sany Group, we are full of expectations for the new energy revolution." Dai Qinghua said.

Dai Qinghua also said: "As a latecomer, we hope to provide better solutions for the photovoltaic industry through technological innovation. Through the development of internationalization, we can solve some global concerns about new energy demand and the imbalance of layout. This is also a huge opportunity for our Chinese entrepreneurs."

the reporter noticed that in addition to Sany silicon energy layout photovoltaic manufacturing, Sany heavy energy had also set foot in the photovoltaic field before.

in September 2023, Sany heavy energy announced that, based on the needs of strategic development, in order to reduce related party transactions, in addition to retaining photovoltaic power stations for self-use, 100 equity of 11 wholly-owned subsidiaries involved in the operation and management of distributed photovoltaic power stations will be transferred to Sany heavy industry, a related party.

At the same time, Sany Heavy Energy took a stake in Qingdian Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd. in October. Relevant information shows that the latter is the photovoltaic sector of Qingdian Group (including wind power and other new energy investment, photovoltaic manufacturing, environmental protection and agricultural business), and its business covers the entire industrial chain of industrial silicon, polysilicon, monocrystalline silicon and silicon wafers.

trinity told reporters that at present, the company has no other photovoltaic business except for the roof photovoltaic of its own factory building. "Previously, Sany Group has many divisions built some plant rooftop photovoltaic power plants, which belong to Sany Heavy Energy, and now in order to reduce related transactions, so it is assigned to Sany Heavy Industry. In addition, the investment in clear power photovoltaic belongs to equity investment, the proportion of investment is low, this action generally considers the industrial chain company's fast listing or business synergy, we are optimistic about its growth prospects."

Can we survive a cyclical storm?

In the past three years, under the background of carbon neutral trend, the photovoltaic circuit has become more and more crowded. According to the book "Great Power Photovoltaic", as of August 2022, the number of photovoltaic-related enterprises in China reached 496200, with 91500 new enterprises from January to August 2022 alone, an increase of 45% over the same period last year.

As a new crossover, Sany Group has chosen a vertically integrated manufacturing model and has invested in the latest N-type TOPCon battery technology. This is also the mainstream trend of the current photovoltaic industry.

in the vertical integration mode, the current photovoltaic new and old players mainly through direct competition for terminal power station project investment "gold master" or intermediate power station project contractors to sell photovoltaic module products. It is worth mentioning that although Sany Group has been deeply engaged in the field of wind power for many years and has accumulated consistent customer resources, it still faces competitive pressure in the face of experienced photovoltaic giants and many cross-border players who want to take a piece of the pie.

according to Sany silicon energy, during SNEC2023 period, Sany silicon energy signed an order of 11.7GW at home and abroad, of which it reached a cooperation intention of 5GW with Jiangxi electric construction. Some industry insiders told reporters that Sany Silicon Energy's photovoltaic business in 2023 is still in the initial stage of development, with module shipments of about 300 MW, and its performance will be better next year. However, this data has not been confirmed by Sany silicon energy.

At present, Sany Silicon Energy is accelerating its market expansion and is gradually moving towards the center of the fierce competition. For example, the reporter noticed that in addition to the above-mentioned cooperation intention order signed with Jiangxi Electric Power Construction, Sany Silicon Energy will only enter Datang Group's photovoltaic module access supplier catalog in October 2023. In November 2023, Sany silicon energy appeared in the component bidding.

It is worth mentioning that when Sany silicon energy layout photovoltaic business, it coincides with the industry entering a new round of overcapacity cycle, and the industry ushers in "the strongest internal volume in history".

In an oversupply market environment, the PV market is accelerating into adjustment and moving towards liquidation. Some photovoltaic companies slowed down the pace of investment, and even suspended investment. Some photovoltaic enterprises also appeared to reduce production, stop production phenomenon.

The current most intuitive market performance is the price drop of photovoltaic products. In the upstream polysilicon price conduction, the current component prices all the way down, the year has been cut.

InfoLink data on Consulting12 14 show that the single-sided new signing price of domestic 182 PERC components in the week was between 0.92 yuan/watt and 0.93 yuan/watt, and a small amount of negotiations had begun on 0.9 yuan/watt and 0.85 yuan/watt. The price of TOPCon components is between 0.9 yuan and 1.18 yuan per watt, and the subsequent new orders are close to 0.98 yuan/watt to 1.05 yuan/watt.

the reporter learned that at present, the quotation of TOPCon components of Sany silicon energy is at the middle level of the industry, about 1 yuan/watt, which can be slightly adjusted according to the scale.

With the decline in photovoltaic prices, the profitability of enterprises is inevitably under pressure. On October 31, Li Zhenguo, founder and president of Longji Green Energy, said at the third-quarter performance presentation meeting that there was an irrational price of 1 yuan/watt in the photovoltaic module link, and it was difficult for the whole industry chain to make a profit at this price level. Even the integrated industrial chain enterprises can only barely maintain at the level of 1 yuan/watt.

Li Xiande, chairman of Jingke Energy and Jingke Technology, said recently that even if the price of photovoltaic modules drops to 1 yuan/watt, there is still room for profit for photovoltaic vertical integration enterprises.

However, it is not easy to achieve better profitability for Sany Silicon Energy, which has a short entry time and does not have a high production capacity.

Sany International's performance report for the first half of 2023 shows: "Since the acquisition, Sany Silicon Energy has contributed 0.037 billion yuan of revenue and 0.022 billion yuan of comprehensive losses to the Group as of June 30, 2023."

The development of Sany silicon photovoltaic business remains to be tested by time.

according to the goals previously set by Sany group, its construction machinery, port machinery and coal mining vehicles should become the first in the world, wind energy equipment, new energy commercial vehicles, petroleum equipment, battery equipment, hydrogen energy equipment and photovoltaic equipment should become the first in China, and industrial internet, power battery, photovoltaic industry, construction industrialization, environmental protection equipment, investment to achieve a collaborative break.