China was the largest solar market in the world in 2013, besting a hotly contested field that included Japan, the US and Germany, and China-based manufacturer Yingli Green Energy was also the globe's foremost supplier of solar modules for the second year in a row. In all, the four countries accounted for two-thirds of worldwide PV demand in 2013, according to IHS.
Yingli, based in the northeastern province of Hebei near Beijing, was a high-output producer in three of those four markets. Shipping more than 3GW of solar modules in 2013, the China maker expanded its share of the market to 8.3%, up from 7.4% in 2012 when it was already the world's brightest solar player.
Overall in 2013, Yingli was the number one producer in both China and Germany, second in the US, and ninth in Japan, IHS said.
"A strong footprint in each of the world's leading PV markets was the basis for the phenomenal growth behind Yingli," said Stefan de Haan, principal analyst for photovoltaics at IHS.
Ahead on the solar front, Yingli shines
In China, Yingli's solar module shipments amounted to 625.3MW from the first to the third quarter in 2013, ahead of other China-based rivals like Trina Solar and Jinko Solar.
Yingli was also the leader in Germany, long the world's top PV market but ranked fourth in 2013. Shipping an estimated 583.9MW of solar modules, Yingli was more than double the size of closest competitor Trina. And although impacted in Germany by the anti-dumping trade conflict, China-based solar suppliers continued to maintain significant activity in Germany, with five out of that country's top-10 suppliers based out of China. Only two suppliers in that elite circle, SolarWorld and Conergy, were Germany-based.
For the US, the number three PV market in the world, Yingli came in second after Arizona-based First Solar. The US PV market grew by more than 50% in 2013, and Yingli's total shipments of 479.8MW represented just 70MW short of First Solar's delivery.
The only market where Yingli did not place within the top-three was Japan, the world's second-largest solar space, where Yingli ranked ninth after homegrown producers like Sharp and Kyocera. Foreign suppliers do not have an easy time entering the Japan solar space, even though entry barriers there are not as high as in China.
Global PV was robust-and will remain healthy in 2014
After turning around in the first half of 2013 from a decline in 2012, solar markets worldwide continued their recovery as 2013 came to a close.
Driven by strong demand in Asia, global PV installations rose to 9.2GW in the third quarter, up from 8.7GW in the second, de Haan noted.
As a result, global solar module shipments increased accordingly to 10.1GW during the period, an all-time high as shipments exceeded 10GW in a single quarter for the first time ever. Then in the fourth quarter of 2013 global PV installations grew to 10.6GW, and shipments rose as well to 10.3GW.
The global PV industry can expect further robust expansion in 2014, likely at double-digit levels. However, some growth momentum could be lost during the course of the year as the China and Japan experience decelerating growth following an installation boom in 2013.
"Such expected movements in 2014 imply that the relatively healthy situation PV manufacturers experienced in the second half of 2013 will persist in 2014," de Haan observed. "However, IHS does not expect any further significant improvement in profits and margins at this time beyond the levels achieved in the last two quarters of last year."
