Chinese solar manufacturers report fresh losses despite optimism over Iran War-driven boost in overseas demand
A major Chinese solar manufacturer?said this week that the U.S./Israeli war 'in Iran' is boosting interest overseas?in renewable energies. However, weaker domestic demand is weighing down on the outlook of the sector.
Oil and gas prices have soared as a result of the two-month conflict in the Middle East. This has led to countries looking for alternative energy sources and trying to protect their economies from future shocks. The overall global demand for solar panels will likely decrease by 5-10% in 2026 as a 20% decline in China, the largest solar market in the world, is expected to outweigh a 10% increase in demand from non-China, according to Gener Miao, chief marketing officer at JinkoSolar, who spoke late Wednesday during a briefing on results.
The company stated that the war in Iran and the energy crisis it has caused have led to a renewed interest in renewable energy.
"Recent geopolitical disturbances have impacted certain shipping lines, and temporarily affected 'our shipping costs and our delivery schedule. But at the same time, geopolitical conflict has increased the global focus 'on energy security," JinkoSolar Chairman and CEO?Li Xiande said during the results briefing.
"We also see a continued rise in interest from residential, commercial and power customers." Analysts say that the weaker demand is due to changes in power pricing, which introduced a new market-based system and reduced returns for renewable energy plant projects. Analysts and industry participants caution that they haven't seen much of an increase in war-induced demand to date, and that the market has actually cooled down in April as producers front-loaded their orders in the first-quarter in order to beat the cancellation of the export-tax rebate.
They say that the war-induced demand for renewables won't suffice to solve China's massive excess capacity, which has driven prices below "profitable" levels.
The earnings were mixed. Some companies reported narrowing losses, while others had larger deficits.
JinkoSolar’s net loss dropped to approximately 463 million Yuan ($67.2 millions) in the first three months of 2026, from about 1.32 billion Yuan a year ago. The company reported that module prices had improved, and its "energy storage" business was still gaining momentum.
Trina Solar saw its losses fall to 234 millions yuan from 1.61 billion due to increased revenues from energy storage. Trina shares grew by more than 8% in morning trading on Friday, while JinkoSolar grew by 3%.
Exchange rate fluctuations caused Peer Longi Green Energy's net losses to increase from 1.43 billion Yuan to 1.92 billion Yuan during the third quarter.
Longi shares fell by 2.36% after the results on Wednesday.
(source: Reuters)
