Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, recently TCL Central announced that the company and Vision Industries Company (hereinafter referred to as "Vision Industries") signed a cooperation term list on the same day, intending to jointly establish a joint venture company and invest in the construction of a photovoltaic crystal chip factory project in Saudi Arabia, to promote and assist in the energy transformation of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East region.

As the world's largest exporter of photovoltaic single crystal silicon wafers, the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of high-efficiency N-type photovoltaic single crystal silicon wafers, TCL Central has actively carried out global industrial layout in recent years, continuously improving production capacity, consolidating technological advantages, and expanding the company's leading position and market share in the photovoltaic market.

In terms of operation, TCL Central's profitability has steadily improved, with operating revenue and net profit increasing for 10 consecutive years. In 2022, the company's performance broke a historical record; At the same time, the company maintains a good fund reserve to escort the development of its business. As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the company's monetary fund reserve on its books reached 14.89 billion yuan.

Joint venture factory layout in the Middle East market

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, on the evening of May 24th, TCL Central announced that the company and Vision Industries had discussed plans to jointly establish a joint venture and invest in the construction of a photovoltaic crystal wafer factory project in Saudi Arabia. After friendly negotiations, a cooperation term list was signed on the same day to enhance mutual understanding and promote the progress of the cooperation project.

Regarding the purpose of this cooperation, TCL Central stated that this cooperation relies on the geographical and policy advantages of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, the localization experience of Vision Industries, and the company's leading technological advantages and advanced manufacturing capabilities in the field of new energy photovoltaic. Both parties are committed to jointly creating the first local photovoltaic industry chain in Saudi Arabia, promoting and assisting the energy transformation of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Vision Industries is registered in Saudi Arabia and its main business is the investment and development of the entire new energy industry chain, including solar photovoltaic, wind energy, hydrogen energy, energy storage, etc. After the establishment of the joint venture company, it is mainly responsible for the production, manufacturing, and sales of photovoltaic crystals and chips, with sales areas mainly including the Middle East and Africa region (in compliance with applicable sanctions laws and regulations) and other markets.

The reporter noticed that TCL Central has been accelerating its global expansion in recent years. In 2020, the company invested $298 million in MAXE, a top global photovoltaic enterprise, and became its second largest shareholder. Afterwards, in 2021 and 2022, the company invested $33.66 million and $201 million respectively to subscribe to its additional shares and convertible bonds. On May 17 of this year, the company announced its intention to subscribe to MAXE's additional shares for no more than $42 million, further improving its overseas industry layout and creating a core competitive advantage in the global photovoltaic industry chain.

On the official website of TCL Central, it can be seen that as of now, the company has gradually expanded its overseas layout in regions/countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and the Americas through domestic and foreign investment platforms, marketing centers, and production bases. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reports.

This time, TCL Central will rely on the company's Industry 4.0 advanced manufacturing model to promote localized construction and create a globally competitive photovoltaic industry base in the Middle East region, laying a solid foundation for the company's industrial globalization and manufacturing localization. In addition, this cooperation will continue to reduce the LCOE (kilowatt hour cost) of photovoltaic power generation and optimize the BOS cost in the future.

Investing 1 billion yuan in research and development in the first quarter to enhance competitiveness

According to data, TCL Central was established in 1988 and has been focusing on the new energy photovoltaic industry for a long time. Its main business revolves around the research and development and manufacturing of silicon materials, covering fields such as new energy photovoltaic materials, high-efficiency stacked tile modules, and smart photovoltaic solutions. Its main products include new energy photovoltaic silicon wafers, photovoltaic cells and components, other silicon materials, and the development and operation of high-efficiency photovoltaic power station projects.

As a leading enterprise in the field of photovoltaic silicon wafers, TCL Central continues to expand its advantageous production capacity. At the end of 2022, the company's crystal production capacity reached as high as 140GW, with G12 advanced production accounting for over 90%. The export market share of photovoltaic silicon wafers ranked first in the world, G12 market share ranked first in the world, and N-type silicon wafers market share ranked first in the world. As the Yinchuan project continues to be put into operation and technological capabilities improve, the company expects to have a crystal production capacity of 180GW by the end of 2023, continuing to maintain the top 1 global single crystal scale.

At the same time, TCL Central is also rapidly developing towards photovoltaic integration. In the downstream battery cell segment, the company announced on April 15th that the 25GW N-type TOPCon high-efficiency solar cell industry 4.0 smart factory project has landed in Guangzhou, with a total investment of about 10.6 billion yuan. The project is expected to be put into operation in the first half of 2024, with an annual output value of 16 billion yuan after reaching full capacity; In the photovoltaic module sector, its subsidiary Huansheng Photovoltaic has achieved an overall sales volume of 6.6GW of modules in 2022, ranking among the top global rankings.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, TCL Central focuses on technological innovation and continuously increases research and development investment to enhance its core competitiveness. From 2020 to the first quarter of 2023, the company's research and development expenses were 619 million yuan, 1.859 billion yuan, 2.923 billion yuan, and 1.018 billion yuan, respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 7.71%, 200.41%, 57.24%, and 82.95%. As of the end of 2022, the company has 1252 R&D personnel, an increase of 17.01% compared to 2021, accounting for 7.2% of the total number of employees in the company.

As of December 31, 2022, TCL Central has accumulated 1223 valid authorized intellectual property rights, including 149 inventions, 1035 utility models, 1 appearance, 21 integrated circuit layout designs, and 17 software copyrights; 747 patents have been accepted, including 568 invention patents and 179 utility models.

The steady increase in production and strong technical capabilities provide guarantee for the rapid growth of the company's performance. From the perspective of annual performance, in 2012, TCL Central's net profit suffered a slight loss of 98.2 million yuan. The following year, it successfully turned the loss into profit and maintained a continuous growth trend. In 2022, the company achieved a new high in performance, achieving revenue and net profit of 67.1 billion yuan and 6.819 billion yuan, respectively. This has been the continuous growth of its revenue and net profit for 10 years, with an increase of about 16.98 times and 94.18 times respectively during this period.

According to the recently released quarterly report, TCL Central achieved a revenue of 17.619 billion yuan in the first three months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 31.8%. The net profit and non net profit after deduction were 2.253 billion yuan and 2.219 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 71.9% and 70.61%. This is another performance improvement after presenting a dazzling transcript in 2022.

It is worth mentioning that while maintaining business expansion, TCL Central is also continuously improving its capital strength. According to the financial report, the company's monetary reserves (monetary funds and trading financial assets) were 186 million yuan when it went public in 2007. By the end of 2022, this value had increased to 14.675 billion yuan, an increase of 77.9 times over the past 15 years; As of the end of March 2023, the company's monetary fund reserves on its books amounted to 14.89 billion yuan.