Company Profile - LONGi Green Energy Technology

The largest manufacturer of solar technology in the world

For the next entry into our China Company Series – we’re looking at the mighty LONGi Green Energy Technology, the largest manufacturer of solar technology in the world.

Check out our last entry on CATL – the world’s largest EV battery maker.

Specifically, LONGi is a researcher, manufacturer, and distributor of photovoltaic solar modules and a developer of solar power projects.

It is the world’s largest manufacturer of monocrystalline silicon wafers.

What’s a Silicon Wafer?

Simply put – A thin slice of semiconductor used to manufacture solar cells.

So LONGi is an all-star manufacturer in the solar space, but it’s not the only thing they do well. They have set energy efficiency records, grown faster than any major company in the entire solar industry globally, and been accepted into SMSL – the Silicon Module Super League (it’s kind of a big deal!).

Company Highlights

The company was founded on February 14, 2000, by Li Zhenguo as Xi’an LONGi Silicon Materials Corporation, with its corporate headquarters in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.

It has manufacturing plants in China, India, and Malaysia, and has purchased other production facilities from other companies including American manufacturer SunEdison. They are considering opening their own fresh manufacturing facilities in the USA in the near future as well.

Fast Company listed LONGi as one of the “Most Innovative Companies of 2013 … for supplying the solar industry with high-quality silicon wafers at low cost.”

LONGi went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in April 2012 for around a modest 1 RMB per share.

The company saw its largest growth stretch over the past few years, going from 21.99 billion RMB ($3.08 billion USD) in revenue in 2018 to 80.93 billion RMB ($11.34 billion USD) in 2021.

Top Line Financials

This manufacturing of green energy has come with quite a financial return. LONGi has enjoyed a consistent rise in both revenue and profits since starting to release its numbers as a public company in 2012:

The stock price has (mostly) reflected the strong financials. As mentioned above, LONGi debuted on the Shanghai exchange in April 2012 at 1 RMB per share. It then grew steadily to 17 RMB per share by the beginning of the 2020 pandemic.

After a surge to nearly 70 RMB in 2021, the price is now trading around 47 RMB as of writing this article in 2022/11.

LONGi has most recently stated that its revenue for Q1 in 2022 was up 44% from the prior year, so there doesn’t seem to be any signs of slowdown is for this green energy powerhouse.

Would you like to add LONGi to your portfolio? LONGi is a component of ExpatInvest’s China Modern Manufacturing Industry Fund, and New Income Stock & Bond Mix Fund.