JKS

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for JinkoSolar Holding Company Limited's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's call to Ms. Stella Wang, JinkoSolar's Investor Relations. Please proceed, Stella.

Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today for JinkoSolar's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. The company results were released earlier today and available on the company's IR website at www.jinkosolar.com, as well as on Newswire services. We have also provided a supplemental presentation for today's earnings call, which can also be found on the IR website. On the call today from JinkoSolar are Xiande Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. Gener Miao, Chief Marketing Officer of JinkoSolar Co., Ltd. Mr. Tan Yi, Chief Financial Officer of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., and Charlie Cao, Chief Executive Officer of JinkoSolar Co., Ltd. Mr. Li will discuss JinkoSolar's business operations and company highlights, followed by Mr. Miao, who will talk about the sales and marketing, and then Mr. Tan Yi, who will go through the financials.

They will all be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Our future results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding this and other risks is included in JinkoSolar's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. JinkoSolar does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under the applicable law. It's now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Xiande Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JinkoSolar Holding. Mr. Li will speak in Mandarin, and I will translate his comments into English. Please go ahead, Mr. Li.

[Non-English content]

In the first quarter, total module shipments reached 13.7 GW, ranking first in the industry with over 80% shifted to overseas markets. We closed the quarter as the world's first module manufacturer to surpass 400 GW in cumulative deliveries and also became the industry leader with our Tiger Neo series, contributing to approximately 240 GW to that total. Module prices rebounded sequentially, driven by stronger supply and demand dynamics, especially from overseas. This improved our operating performance sequentially with our gross margin increasing to 8.3% and our net loss narrowing. Recent geopolitical disruptions have impacted key logistics lines, adding temporary pressure on our shipping costs and delivery schedules. At the same time, these disruptions have increased the importance of energy security globally. We are seeing growing momentum among industrial, commercial, residential, and utility customers to adopt solar plus storage solutions.

In addition, regulators in China outlined further policy guidance on April 17th, strengthening regulations on competition across the solar industry to support its high-quality development. We believe these measures will help improve supply and demand dynamics and support a more rational competitive environment. In response to market dynamics, we continue to optimize our production pipeline and geographic mix and remain in close communication and negotiations with our customers.

With the industry competition gradually normalizing as we scale up our high-efficiency Tiger Neo series, we expect the module prices to remain relatively stable. We continue to grow our footprints in the distributed solar market and are further expanding into diverse niche application scenarios that align with rising power demand globally and a shift towards cleaner and more distributed energy systems. This trend, combined with our deep technological expertise and brand strength, will allow us to continue enhancing our competitiveness in the global market.

[Non-English content]

By the end of the first quarter, average power output for our Tiger Neo, the third generation Tiger Neo series, reached 655 watts-660 watts peak, and we continue to ramp up our capacity. We expect the production capacity for this high-efficiency series with power output above 650 watts peak to exceed 40 GW by the end of this year. As capacity gradually ramps up and generates economies of scale in the second half of this year, we expect the cost structure to continue to improve.

[Non-English content]

In the first quarter, high-efficiency products above 640 watts increased sequentially and accounted for nearly 25% of the total shipments. These products also command a premium, reflecting the differentiated advantages built through our continued technical iteration and product upgrades. Separately, we continue to make solid progress in the mass production of silver-coated copper technology, where our pace and scale are leading the industry.

[Non-English content]

In terms of our ESS business, first quarter ESS shipments on a POD basis reached approximately 1.42 GWh, with around 520 MWh recognized as revenue. A higher contribution from high-value overseas markets such as Europe and the U.S. supported a more optimized market mix and drove a sequential improvement in our gross margin. Because of the time lag in revenue recognition of some projects, profit contribution has yet to be fully realized. In 2026, we will continue to optimize our ESS capacity and supply chain footprint and focus on high-value markets to drive improvements in both scale and profitability. We expect ESS shipments to more than double year-over-year in 2026, enhancing our profitability profile and contribute meaningfully to our overall bottom line.

[Non-English content]

Before I turn it over to Gener, I would like to go over our guidance for the second quarter and full year of 2026. We expect annual integrated production capacity to reach approximately 100 GW by the end of this year, including 14 GW from overseas facilities. We expect the module shipments to be between 14 GW and 16 GW for the second quarter of 2026, and between 75 GW and 85 GW for the full year 2026, with high-efficiency products accounting for over 60%. We will continue to enhance our technological leadership and product competitiveness, deepen our global footprint, accelerate the development of our integrated solar-plus-storage strategy, improve operating efficiency, and drive gradual improvements in profitability.

Thank you, Mr. Li. Total module shipments were 13.7 GW in the first quarter. We capitalized on opportunities arising from demand shifts in overseas markets by leveraging our outstanding global sales network and product competitiveness. Non-China markets accounted for over 80% of our total shipments over the quarter, mainly from Europe, Asia Pacific, and emerging markets. Shipments to the U.S. accounted for about 4%. For the full year, we expect overseas markets to remain our primary growth driver as domestic demand face temporary pressure, while overseas demand grows steadily. The proportion of high-efficiency product shipment continued to rise sequentially. This included deliveries of a small amount of the 3.0 products. High-efficiency products command a premium of approximately $0.01 over conventional products.

With capacity of Tiger Neo 3.0 series gradually ramping up and being released, we expect the high-efficiency product shipments to account for over 60% of total shipments for the full year. To address increasing scenario-based nature of PV demand, we launched a series of specialized product in the first quarter, including anti-glare, fire resistant, dust resistant, and AIDC modules. These products are designed to target premium and high specification application segments with more demanding requirements. So far, the products have been widespread market interest and positive customer feedback. This will further strengthen our premium positioning and market reach as we continue to build on years of accumulated technology expertise and advantage in product performance. Global computing power demand continues to grow. Data centers are becoming a major new category of power consumption.

To address this shift, we launched a full scenario PV plus energy storage solution tailored for AIDC, which provides all-weather renewable energy security for power demands requiring high reliability and continuously expands the boundaries of PV applications. Recently, we have made significant progress in our strategic markets. For example, in the Middle East, we supplied our high performance Tiger Neo modules to a world-leading solar-plus-storage benchmark project that integrates energy and compute applications. This further validates our competitive advantages in large scale project delivery and global service capabilities. With deep market insight and disciplined efficient execution, we are confident we will continue to capture opportunities from market and industry shifts. By continuously enhancing our technologies, products, and brand strength, we will continue to deliver high performance, high reliability solar plus ESS solutions, while continuously growing our market competitiveness.

Thank you, Gener Miao. We're pleased to report steadily improving financial results driven by our high-performance products and expanding footprint in high value markets. Gross profit increased by 17x sequentially and four-fold year-over-year, while gross margins expanded by 8 percentage points sequentially and 10.8 percentage points year-over-year. Operating loss margin improved both sequentially and year-over-year. As we head into 2026, we are focused on improving our operating performance, optimizing our asset and liability structure, and maintaining healthy operating cash flow to enhance our resilience against risks. Looking at our first quarter results in more detail. Total revenue was CNY 1.78 billion, down 13% sequentially, and 11.5% year-over-year, driven primarily by lower solar module shipment volumes.

Gross margin was 8.3% compared with gross margin of 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and gross loss margin of 2.5% in the first quarter of 2025. The sequential and year-over-year increases were primarily due to the higher average selling prices of solar modules. Total operating expenses were about CNY 233 million, down 51.5% from CNY 473.6 million in the fourth quarter last year, and 36% from CNY 346 million in the first quarter last year. The sequential decreases were primarily due to the impairment of long-lived assets in the fourth quarter, while the year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by lower expected credit losses in the first quarter this year.

Total operating expenses accounted for 13.1% of total revenues during the quarter, compared to 18.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 18.1% in the first quarter of 2025. Operating loss margin was 4.8%, compared with 18.6% in fourth quarter last year, and 20.7% in the first quarter. Excluding the impact of changes in the fair value of convertible notes issued by JinkoSolar in 2023, changes in the fair value of long-term investment and share-based compensation expenses, adjusted net loss attribute to JinkoSolar Holding ordinary shareholders was about CNY 9.6 million in the first quarter, compared with CNY 119.8 million in the first quarter last year and CNY 147.4 million in the first quarter last year, representing the significant improvement both sequentially and year-over-year.

Net loss attribute to JinkoSolar Holding ordinary shareholders was CNY 667.2 million in the first quarter, compared with CNY 214.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, and CNY 181.7 million in the first quarter of 2025, improving significantly both sequentially and year-over-year. Moving to the balance sheet. As of end of the first quarter this year, cash and cash equivalents were CNY 3.3 billion, compared with CNY 3.28 billion at the end of fourth quarter of 2025. AR turnover days was 128 days, compared with 94 days in the fourth quarter of last year. Inventory turnover was 142 days compared to 75 days in the fourth quarter of last year.

As of end of the first quarter, total debt was CNY 6.85 billion, compared to CNY 6.72 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Net debt was CNY 3.55 billion compared to CNY 3.4 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now happy to take your questions. Operator, please proceed.

Thank you. Your first question comes from Philip Shen with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. First one is just on margins. Was wondering if you could give us your outlook for margins for Q2, 3 and 4. You know, you just hosted your Q4 call and your Q1 margin came in much better than expected. I was wondering if Q2 should be at a similar level or if not, maybe better. What's your sense for Q3 and 4? Thanks.

Yeah, Philip, this is Charlie. The Q4, the gross margin jumped a lot, quarter by quarter. It's, I think it's a combination the efforts we are trying to push up the price as well as, you know, optimize the cost. Looking to the second quarter, we expect it relatively stable because we still facing, you know, we need to manage some of the impact from the old orders. Looking to the second half year, given our new capacity and new high innovation capacity platform is going to deliver, you know, more and more percent as well as we are, you know, optimize the cost structures. We expect the gross margin in second half year will jump, you know, compared to the first half year.

Okay. Thank you, Charlie. Next one for me is on your full year guidance of 80 GW. You know, the run rate in the first half is 14 GW, so then you might need more than 25 GW on a quarterly run rate in the second half of 2026. Is this expected to come from... Like, this growth and quarterly run rate from 14 GW-25 GW, is that expected to come from market growth or do you think you take share or maybe another source? Thanks.

I think, you know, the first half year and each quarter we get roughly 15 GW. The China, you know, the market is relatively soft, right? Given last year's were very high numbers. On top of that, a lot of projects in China is expected to be, you know, implemented in the second half year. For the market out of China, we expect relatively, you know, in global. Back to your questions, we guide 75 GW-85 GW. I think the first priority is, for us is to improve the gross margin profitabilities. We will be more selective as. No, I think one of the factors we are more confident for the shipment is.

We get a very, very strong demands for the Tiger Neo 3, the next generation TOPCon products. The second one is we believe we're, you know, we're relatively good positions to take the market shares from our peers. It's a combination. Back to your questions, you know, second half year, we definitely will have more shipments for first half year. It's a relatively higher shipments, but we are quite, you know, flexible in terms of range, 75 GW-85 GW. We expect to get more customers from the next generation TOPCon customers and get more market share from our peers.

Great. Thank you for the detail. I'll pass it on.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Alan Lau with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question. Actually seeing a quite strong momentum in ESS business on the company, would like to know if there's any updates on to the order book the company has on ESS and the regional split or anything to share because I'm seeing in the results that RES-C ESS is also quite strong in Europe. Wonder if there's any updates on ESS. Thanks.

The ESS, definitely we are expecting more, you know, business opportunities in Europe, particularly, you know, the impact from the Middle East conflict. In terms of the global mix from different regions, we are trying to minimize the China exposures. It's roughly 10%-15%. The remaining part, 85%, it's combination of, you know, the first target market is in Europe, as well as we have, you know, relatively good targets for the Asia-Pacific regions and the Middle East and Latin America. We also expect some, you know, shipments in the U.S. as well.

Understood. How's the margin profile in across these regions?

In Europe or U.S. and is relatively higher. It's over 30% in other regions, and it's relatively lower, and I think it's roughly 10%-15%. In the first quarter we delivered 60% gross margin. It's, you know, I think we expect a continuous challenge from the higher material cost. Combination-wise, we expect to the, you know, we ship 10 GWh shipments this year with roughly a 15% gross margin.

Understood. This has already factored in the increasing lithium carbonate costs, right?

Yes.

gross margin guide.

Yes.

Understood. Understood. Switching gear to solar business, would like to know what's the view of the company on the FEOC compliance and also on the Section 232 investigation on polysilicon.

I think Section 232, we don't, you know, we don't know what exactly the timetable, you know, the policy will come out. We have, I think, you know, separate independent suppliers from polysilicon to the manufacturing, wafer cell module. If, you know, 232 come out, I think we have Plan B to deal with the situation. Your first question is talking about LONGi, right? In the U.S.?

Yes. Yes. On FEOC as well.

You mean the supply side or the manufacturing side?

How confident is the company to get the credits and at the same time, are your clients confident that using Jinko's product will also enable them to get the ITC as well?

Yes, yes. I think, you know, for the... In the, in the next two years, I think that there's a lot of demand for TOPCon modules because of safe harbor, you know, regulations. At the same time, we, you know, we have manufacturing in the U.S. and we expect to convert to the LONGi and joint venture manufacturing very soon by the end of second quarter. It's highly possible the joint venture, you know, the majority, the newcomer is going to expand the capacity as well. From the supply side, we have several, you know, LONGi cell, more solar cell, manufacturing suppliers in different regions, out of China, out of the Asia-Pacific regions. So we are confident for the shipments in the.

In this year, as well as we try to build more resources and to have a good foundation for next year.

The JV partner will be known by end of second quarter, which is basically two months from now. Is it a U.S. player?

It's a investor, you know, China investor. It's, you know, definitely compliant with the OBVV, you know, regulations.

Understood. We'll know in two months?

Yes. Yes.

Understood. Is there any plan for capacity expansion, like? Speaking of capacity expansion, there is quite some concern on the export of solar equipment from China. Wonder if, what's your view on that, like?

Yes. There's I think in the news and in the public medias, there's maybe possible, you know, some kind of e-export restrictions. But we didn't get a final, you know, confirmations or any signed documents. In terms of what I'm talking about the capacity expansions, they could be go through the merger acquisition existing module capacity in the U.S. I think it's. I think the joint venture is now looking for very big expansions. It's doable through other ways.

Understood. Switching gear to space-based solar. Wonder if the progress on that front, like are there any products dedicated to AI data centers in space and are there any relevant updates on that part of the business?

I think our R&D team has done some kind of preparations also for the, you know, for the, for the solar panels depending on different technologies like the silicon, like the perovskite. We've made some progress on the silicon-based technology for space testing. Our target is by the end of the second quarter, we can get the example ready, and it could be work with some, you know, the space companies to do the testing.

Understood. The panels will be launched in satellites and be tested in Q2?

It's not determined, but it's going to, you know. We are trying to explore the different panel. Definitely, you know, when you do some space-based solar panels, definitely we try to test in the space.

Understood. That's clear. My final question is, what's your view on the demand second half? Because the demand now is quite weak. Wonder if you are expecting any policies or any signs that demand will recover in second half on solar?

Yeah. Yeah. From demand side, we expect the current slowing down in Q2 or early Q2 is perfectly natural because of the rush hour by end of Q1 has pulled in a lot of demand from Q2, right? Everyone tried to get a benefit for the last-minute rush before the China VAT policy change. I think that the slowing down in Q2 is within the expectations. We still are looking to the whole year demand, especially for second half, we are still kind of optimistic. I think three reasons behind it. One reason is because, after the recent conflict in the Middle East, you know, we heard a lot of, you know, the energy security topics, right? The solar or wind, batteries, can provide more energy securities.

Many countries put that into a national strategy. That potentially trigger more demand. Secondly, it's because of the rising demand from AIDC topics. We see massive upcoming projects combined between renewables and AIDCs all over the world. The third important reason is because of the, we call it, C&I or distributed generation market demand is still very robust. We can feel a very strong demand from that perspective. Many, let's say, even in the emerging market, the C&I sectors, DG sectors demand are pretty solid and robust even for the whole year. Combine everything together, we still expect a healthy or at least a solid demand in second half. That's from the high levels.

If you break into details, because of the strong demand in China in last year, we believe the China demand will drop roughly 20% compared to last year. If we talking about the non-China demand, we can see, roughly 10% increase year-over-year. Combine everything together, I think it will be, roughly 5%-10%, demand decrease, in 2026 versus 2025. If you look into the seasonality, the second half definitely will be stronger than first half.

Understood. That's very clear, Gener. I'll pass on. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Rajiv Chaudhri from Sunsara Capital. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for taking my call. My question. The first question I have is about average selling prices. You have mentioned that prices are stable going into the second quarter versus the first quarter. I want to get your sense on how the second half pricing is going to be. Also, you know, you have been doing a lot of product development focusing on higher end or a better positioning of the product in terms of market segments like trying to aim for markets where there's a lot of dust, for example.

You have been positioning, segmenting the market and trying to bring out products for these different use cases. My question is, does this allow you to get better pricing than the market on average? Could we see your average selling prices actually be inching up, you know, both because of high performance as well as because of market segmentation as we go through the year? That's my first question.

Yeah. Rajiv, thank you for the question. Thank you for your insight. Actually, that's our target. What you just saying is exactly what we are targeting at. Nobody has a crystal ball to know the future. We are working hard. On one side, there's a strong government push in China, try to have the whole dust industry get rid of or get out from the price competition. Another way we are looking into is we try to target the customers and the business at a value-added perspective instead of, you know, price competition perspective. In that case, we hope we can, you know, work with the scenario of a steady, healthy market prices.

Actually, if you take a deeper look into the prices recent days versus the price in Q1, you can feel that even the policy change, the demand is weak in Q2. Actually, the market price is not dropping as many people expected, right. It's really because of, you know, the manufacturer side has suffered so much, and nobody would like to sell at huge loss making. Another reason is really, you know, the market itself, the market demand itself is still capable to absorb the higher prices. It doesn't have to be a price competition. We could make the market competition more healthy way instead of a number game. Yeah, back to your question.

I personally am optimistic about the market prices in the rest of the year, and hopefully it would remain at a healthy range, for everyone.

Great. Thank you. My second question is about costs. You know, as you are pushing towards the higher value-added product, does that automatically mean that your costs will also be higher or the costs are going to keep on coming down because you are getting better and the scale is getting better in terms of the size of the business?

The high-efficiency product like the Neo Three definitely is going to generate more profitability and gross margins. You are talking about a scenario-based product, right? That is what we are trying to build in different use for different scenario like AIDC, like acid, dust or whatever, the channel penetrations, which will definitely bring a, you know, I think additional profitabilities. With the, I think we are upgrading our capacity to the next higher efficiency products, the cost, with the economy of scales, the cost will be optimized as well.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. With that, we conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.