Canadian Solar mentioned in an earnings call on November 10th that in order to meet the expected strong growth in global demand for PV modules in the quarters ahead, it would increase in-house wafer production from 400MW to 1GW by mid-2016, while solar cell capacity would be expanded 900MW from 2.5GW currently to 3.4GW by the end of 2016. However, the biggest capacity increase is PV module production which will be expanded from 4.33GW, which the company expects to achieved by the end of 2015, to 5.63GW by the end of 2016, a 1GW increase.
Canadian Solar specifically noted that its wafer manufacturing capacity at its plant in Luoyang, Henan Province, is expected to reach 1.0GW by June of 2016, while its cell manufacturing capacity at its plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is expected to reach 2.0GW by the end of 2015. Cell manufacturing capacity at its Funning plant in Jiangsu Province is expected to reach 1.0GW by July of 2016.
Planned module manufacturing capacity by the end of 2016 includes 3.0GW in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, and 1.1GW in Luoyang, Henan Province, while approximately 1.53GW will be at existing and new locations outside China, including 500MW in Canada, 300MW in Vietnam, 30MW in Indonesia, 300MW in Brazil and 400MW in Southeast Asia. Canadian Solar also said that a new 400MW cell manufacturing plant, to be located in Southeast Asia, was expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2016.
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The capital expenditure budget for all of the capacity expansions planned included an estimated US$104.0 million to be spent in the second half of 2015 and a further US$297.0 million allocated to the expansions in 2016, according to the company. Canadian Solar said that it would fund the expansions by capital leases and borrowing from local financial institutions in China.
“This has been a solid quarter as we benefited from strong demand for our modules in the U.S., Japan, China and India,” comments Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar. For the fourth quarter of 2015, the Company expects total module shipments to be in the range of approximately 1,300 MW to 1,350 MW.
Source: PVtech/SolarServer