China's National Bureau of Statistics data released on August 27 shows that, as of the end of July, accounts receivable for industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide stood at 28.88 trillion yuan, up 8.5% year on year, while operating revenue for the same group reached 80.92 trillion yuan, up 6.5% year on year. The growth rate of receivables for above-scale industrial enterprises outpaced that of revenue. At the same time, corporate collection periods are lengthening, with private enterprises taking longer than state-owned ones. As of the end of July, the average collection period for accounts receivable of above-scale industrial enterprises was 71.9 days, up 0.9 days year on year. As of the end of June, the collection period for private industrial enterprises was 75.6 days, notably longer than the 55.6 days for state-controlled enterprises.
On September 14, the State Council Information Office held a routine policy briefing to specifically deploy work on addressing payment collection difficulties for small and medium-sized enterprises. Guo Ruiming, director of the Listed Company Supervision Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, stated at the meeting that regulators will work from both ends to resolve collection difficulties: on one hand, urging listed companies to strengthen information disclosure and standardize payment practices; on the other hand, focusing on the operating difficulties of small and medium-sized market entities in the industrial chain and promoting smooth capital circulation across the entire chain. This policy signal has once again put the issues of listed companies' accounts payable and supplier payment terms under the capital market spotlight.
As a core track in the high-end manufacturing sector, the payment ecosystem of the photovoltaic industry is a microcosm of the broader macro industrial collection landscape. A review of the latest financial report data from 14 major A-share PV listed companies reveals significant divergence in the scale of accounts payable and turnover days across the industry. While leading companies maintain large-scale occupation of supplier funds by virtue of their industrial chain position, some companies under operating pressure have seen their accounts payable turnover days lengthen rapidly. Among them, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) posted a year-on-year increase of 79.0% in accounts payable turnover days, ranking first among the listed PV companies, and the operational and funding risks behind its sharply extended payment terms deserve particular attention amid tightening regulation.
Divergent growth in industry payables as most listed companies see longer payment terms
In terms of the absolute scale of accounts payable and notes, the fund-occupation capabilities of leading PV companies are clearly tiered. Data shows that among the 14 listed companies, Sungrow Power Supply ranks first with 405 billion yuan in accounts payable and notes. The three integrated giants — LONGi Green Energy, Trina Solar, and JinkoSolar — all broke through the 300-billion-yuan mark, reaching 352 billion yuan, 315 billion yuan, and 302 billion yuan respectively. Tongwei ranks close behind with 256 billion yuan, forming the industry's first tier. TCL Zhonghuan, JA Solar, and Hongyuan Green Energy have accounts payable in the range of 117 billion to 182 billion yuan; the remaining six companies all have scales below 100 billion yuan, with GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) at 58 billion yuan, relatively low among the sample companies.
Year-on-year growth rates for accounts payable show sharply divergent characteristics. Several leaders in the integrated module and polysilicon segments saw their accounts payable contract year on year. JA Solar, Tongwei, and Canadian Solar saw their accounts payable decline by 34.3%, 27.0%, and 25.1% respectively, while Risen Energy and Hongyuan Green Energy also recorded negative growth to varying degrees. In contrast, inverter-sector companies rapidly improved their fund-occupation capabilities, with GoodWe and Deye's accounts payable growing by 169.4% and 162.1% year on year respectively.
Compared with scale indicators, accounts payable turnover days more accurately reflect the actual length of payment terms companies offer to suppliers. Data shows that payment terms vary widely across different segments of the PV industrial chain. Hongyuan Green Energy's accounts payable turnover days reached 491 days, the highest in the industry. Sungrow, Risen Energy, and LONGi Green Energy all exceeded 260 days, at 350 days, 304 days, and 260 days respectively. GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) ranked fifth with 251 days. Tongwei's turnover days stood at only 130 days, less than one-third of Hongyuan Green Energy's, with a gap of more than 360 days between the top and bottom of the industry.
During the industry's downcycle, more than half of the listed companies saw their accounts payable turnover days rise year on year, with payment terms lengthening either passively or actively. Among them, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) saw turnover days surge 79.0% year on year, the highest increase among the 14 companies. GoodWe and Sungrow ranked second and third with increases of 64.0% and 53.2% respectively. Canadian Solar, JinkoSolar, LONGi Green Energy, and Risen Energy also recorded year-on-year increases in turnover days exceeding 30%. On the other hand, Hongyuan Green Energy, Tongwei, TCL Zhonghuan, and Trina Solar saw their turnover days decline year on year, with Hongyuan Green Energy dropping sharply by 35.4%, highlighting deep divergence among companies in payment term management strategies and financial conditions.
GCL System Integration's payment terms rise 80%, the fastest pace, as 4.8 billion yuan private placement fails and debt ratio climbs to 95%
In terms of the pace of payment term changes, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) saw its accounts payable turnover days increase 79.9% year on year, the highest among the listed companies. It should be noted that this is not a signal of improved industrial chain position, but rather a passive choice under operational and funding pressure.
Pressure on the core business is the root cause of the extended payment terms. Affected by overcapacity in the PV industry and escalating price wars, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) has seen revenue decline since 2025, with revenue falling 39.70% in the first half of 2026, while losses widened to 430 million yuan. Declining module product prices further squeezed profit margins, and the company's gross margin continued to decline. The weakening of profitability directly led to insufficient cash flow generation from operations. Faced with rigid production and operating expenses, extending payment cycles to upstream suppliers became the company's reluctant choice to maintain capital turnover.
High debt pressure further amplified the fragility of its capital chain. As of the end of June 2026, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd.'s (ASX: 002506) asset-liability ratio had climbed to a record high of 95.64%, far exceeding the average debt level of the PV industry. Against the backdrop of core business losses and poor operating cash flow, a high debt ratio means the company faces enormous debt repayment pressure, with extremely limited liquidity buffer space. The passive extension of accounts payable is essentially transmitting its own funding pressure to upstream small and medium-sized suppliers, trading time for space to maintain operations.
It is worth noting that in December 2022, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) announced plans for a private placement to raise 4.842 billion yuan for capacity expansion and working capital replenishment. However, in the subsequent industry downcycle, the private placement plan ultimately failed to materialize. Having lost access to equity financing, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) can neither respond to price wars through capacity expansion and cost reduction, nor replenish working capital to withstand cyclical fluctuations. Its capital chain strain has continued to escalate, forcing it to rely even more on occupying supplier funds to maintain daily operations.
Moreover, GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd.'s (ASX: 002506) largest shareholder, Jiangsu GCL Construction Management Co., Ltd., and second-largest shareholder, GCL Group Co., Ltd., have pledged all of their shares in the company. Meanwhile, since the beginning of this year, major shareholder Shenzhen Qianhai Orient Venture Capital Holding has continued to reduce its stake in the company.
The latest regulatory deployment specifically addressing payment collection difficulties for small and medium-sized enterprises and standardizing listed companies' payment practices targets the current situation of poor capital transmission in the industrial chain and pressure on weaker participants. For the PV industry, during the previous boom cycle, it was common for leading companies to extend supplier payment terms and occupy upstream and downstream funds by virtue of their scale advantages. But during the downcycle, the risks of this model are being exposed at an accelerating pace.
For companies like GCL System Integration Technology Co., Ltd. (ASX: 002506) with weak fundamentals and high leverage, on one hand, tightening regulation raises standardization requirements for listed companies' payment practices, and maliciously delaying payment terms will be explicitly constrained. On the other hand, upstream suppliers themselves face operating pressure, and excessively long payment terms may trigger reverse transmission of supply chain credit risk, ultimately backfiring on the listed company's own supply chain stability. The model of relying on extending supplier payment terms to stay alive is facing an increasingly severe situation.
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