Shanghai Aiko Solar Energy Co.,Ltd. (600732.SH), which sought a breakthrough through its differentiated ABC product route, is now mired in a difficult balancing act between scale expansion and profit recovery. The 2025 annual report and 2026 first-quarter report reveal that despite steady revenue growth driven by increased shipments of ABC modules, the company remains deeply entrenched in losses on the profit front.
The drag from losses in the traditional cell business continues, with the overseas module market becoming a crucial pillar for Shanghai Aiko Solar's revenue growth. However, the company's differentiation strategy has not escaped the industry's intense internal competition. With accelerated capacity expansion in the BC (Back Contact) segment and heightened market rivalry, the premium pricing power for its products faces challenges. The company is aggressively advancing the technical upgrade of older production lines and the construction of new ABC capacity, but it confronts multiple financial pressures including high debt-servicing burdens, surging interest expenses, and elevated accounts receivable and inventory levels.
01. Divergent Profitability Between Domestic and International Sales; Differentiation Advantages Mask Multiple Concerns Throughout the year, the imbalance between photovoltaic supply and demand showed no significant improvement, with prices of major products remaining relatively low. Coupled with the sustained increase in prices of key raw materials like polysilicon and silver paste since the second half of 2025, and a lag in passing these costs to end-product prices, Shanghai Aiko Solar's operations remained under significant pressure.
In 2025, Shanghai Aiko Solar achieved revenue of 15.614 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.97%. However, it reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of -1.822 billion yuan, representing a 65.75% increase in the loss. In 2024, the company had recorded a massive net loss of 5.319 billion yuan, resulting in a cumulative loss exceeding 7.1 billion yuan over two years.
The rapid ramp-up of its ABC module business became the primary performance driver for Shanghai Aiko Solar. In 2025, the company's ABC module shipments reached 14.71 GW, surging 132% year-on-year. Revenue from this segment amounted to 10.655 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 114.75%, accounting for 68% of the annual revenue and solidifying its position as the company's core business.
This growth was underpinned by the product premium ABC modules commanded in overseas high-end markets, where they maintained a price advantage of 10% to 50% over conventional TOPCon products. Despite a temporary downturn in domestic demand in the second half of 2025, overseas module sales accounted for over 50% of total shipments, offsetting the shortfall in domestic orders. Data shows that for the full year 2025, international sales revenue reached 7.156 billion yuan, up 49.76% year-on-year, constituting 45.83% of total revenue. Profitability diverged sharply between markets: international sales gross margin was 8.1%, while domestic sales gross margin stood at -3.12%. The domestic business remained in a loss-making state, entirely reliant on subsidies from the profitable overseas segment.
Simultaneously, the traditional cell business remained under pressure, acting as a significant drag. In 2025, combined sales of PERC and TOPCon cells totaled 22.29 GW, showing a year-on-year decline. Revenue from solar cells was 3.447 billion yuan, down 35.57%. Impacted by the rapid short-term rise in polysilicon prices and increased unit manufacturing costs due to lower capacity utilization, losses in Shanghai Aiko Solar's cell business widened in the second half of 2025, significantly dragging down overall operating performance. The gross margin for this business for the full year was -8.54%.
In the first quarter of 2026, Shanghai Aiko Solar reported revenue of 4.437 billion yuan, a 7.29% year-on-year increase. The corresponding net profit attributable to shareholders was a loss of 440 million yuan, with the loss widening by 46.37% year-on-year. The company stated that overall product sales improved in Q1 2026, with module prices gradually increasing and comprehensive gross margin showing clear improvement. However, due to foreign exchange fluctuations, a reduction in financing interest subsidies, and a year-on-year increase in financial expenses, net profit attributable to shareholders decreased by 139 million yuan compared to the same period last year.
Shanghai Aiko Solar has built the foundation for the high premium of its ABC modules on factors like its silver-free process, mass production conversion efficiency, and presence in overseas high-end markets. However, judging from operational performance, this differentiation advantage has not yet been fully translated into stable profitability advantages.
The significant decline in domestic demand for new photovoltaic installations in the second half of 2025 further exacerbated supply-demand imbalances and price competition, continuously compressing the original premium space for ABC modules. The gross margin for 2025 was 2.59%. Although the Q1 2026 gross margin recovered to 7.2%, the net profit margin remained as low as -10.32%.
A more severe underlying concern is that as the high efficiency and premium pricing capability of BC batteries become more apparent, competition in this segment is heating up rapidly. In 2025, LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. had 46 GW of HPBC 2.0 battery capacity and sold 22.87 GW of BC modules. Trina Solar Co., Ltd. accelerated the full industrialization of its THBC technology, achieving a maximum conversion efficiency of 28%. With the continuous release of new BC production capacity, the premium pricing power of Shanghai Aiko Solar's ABC modules may be further weakened.
From a technical cost perspective, Shanghai Aiko Solar's technology-based profit advantage is amplified under high silver prices. If silver prices decline in the future, the cost pressure on TOPCon technology would ease, and the cost moat Shanghai Aiko Solar built based on its "silver-free" approach would correspondingly become shallower.
02. High Debt Ratio and Elevated Receivables and Inventory To revitalize existing capacity and focus on transitioning to advanced production, Shanghai Aiko Solar has continued to upgrade its older PERC and TOPCon production lines to ABC technology. In 2025, the company primarily carried out projects including the high-efficiency ABC cell and module project at its Jinan base, the battery capacity upgrade project at the Yiwu base, and the battery capacity upgrade project at the Chuzhou base. New investments in these key capacity construction projects amounted to approximately 745 million yuan, with other fixed asset and intangible asset investments around 34 million yuan.
Beyond optimizing its capacity structure, to reduce costs and improve efficiency, Shanghai Aiko Solar also upgraded its existing ABC production capacity at its Zhuhai and Yiwu bases, comprehensively enhancing its supply capability for third-generation silver-free and low-silver ABC modules. However, the capacity upgrade process caused some disruption to production, resulting in an average annual capacity utilization rate of only 76% for crystalline silicon cell modules. With the technical upgrades largely completed, Shanghai Aiko Solar's ABC business is now essentially operating at full capacity.
Behind the large-scale technical upgrades and capacity expansion lies a continuously rising debt burden. As of the end of Q1 2026, Shanghai Aiko Solar's asset-liability ratio was 78.89%. Although this decreased by 1.06 percentage points compared to the end of 2025, it remains at a relatively high level within the industry. Specifically, the company's short-term borrowings and non-current liabilities due within one year totaled a substantial 8.595 billion yuan at the end of Q1, with long-term borrowings at 4.69 billion yuan. In contrast, monetary funds stood at only 4.413 billion yuan, indicating a relatively clear short-term debt repayment gap.
Under high debt pressure, Shanghai Aiko Solar's interest expense at the end of Q1 reached 153 million yuan, a sharp increase of 219.16% year-on-year. The high interest支出 severely erodes profits and was a major contributor to the expanded loss in the first quarter.
To alleviate funding pressure, Shanghai Aiko Solar implemented a private placement in September 2025, raising net proceeds of 3.458 billion yuan. Of this, 490 million yuan was used to supplement working capital, and 2.968 billion yuan was allocated to the Yiwu Phase VI 15 GW high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cell project. While the placement provided short-term cash flow relief and supported capacity expansion, it did not fundamentally alter the high-debt structure. The company continues to face ongoing capital expenditure and interest payment pressures.
Risks on the asset side are equally noteworthy. Shanghai Aiko Solar's accounts receivable and inventory both showed significant increases, putting clear pressure on asset quality. As of the end of Q1 2026, accounts receivable ballooned to 2.09 billion yuan, a surge of 91.32% year-on-year. Inventory for the same period was 2.414 billion yuan, up 20.96% year-on-year. The growth rates of these two asset categories far exceeded the同期 revenue growth rate, tying up substantial working capital and leading to a 2.19% year-on-year decline in operating cash flow to 700 million yuan for the period.
It is worth noting that at the end of 2025, Shanghai Aiko Solar recognized asset impairment losses of 779 million yuan, followed by an additional 110 million yuan in Q1 2026. These consecutive large asset impairment charges directly吞噬 profits, exacerbating the company's profitability pressure. Currently, Shanghai Aiko Solar is in a difficult transition period characterized by heavy investment, high debt, and slow recovery, facing a severe test of its financial resilience.
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