Company Reports

Trina Solar is one of the four largest Chinese solar module producers. Like its competitors, Trina embraced a vertically integrated model covering wafer, cell, and module production. However, it maintains the lowest level of vertical integration among its leading competitors. By maintaining a smaller solar wafer capacity, Trina retains the flexibility to manage volatile input costs while staying asset-light compared with its fully integrated peers.

Trina Solar broke even in the second quarter, helped by investment income and fair value gains. Excluding one-off items, recurring net profit remained negative, although the loss narrowed 10% year on year.

Data from China's National Energy Administration suggests that domestic solar installations fell 13% year on year in June and 66% in the first half of 2026.

Trina Solar is one of the four largest Chinese solar module producers. Like its competitors, Trina embraced a vertically integrated model covering wafer, cell, and module production. However, it maintains the lowest level of vertical integration among its leading competitors. By maintaining a smaller solar wafer capacity, Trina retains the flexibility to manage volatile input costs while staying asset-light compared with its fully integrated peers.

The Chinese solar producers under our coverage—Jinko Solar, LONGi, JA Solar, Trina Solar, TCL Zhonghuan, Tongwei, and Daqo—remained loss-making through 2025 and into the first quarter of 2026.

China's solar photovoltaic sector rallied on Feb. 4 following media reports that delegations associated with Elon Musk recently visited several Chinese solar PV companies, spanning equipment, silicon wafers, cells, and modules.

The four integrated solar module producers—Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, and LONGi—all guided for preliminary net losses in 2025.

Chinese solar producers—Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, LONGi, and TCL Zhonghuan—all continued to report losses in the third quarter, except for CSI Solar, which remained profitable.

Trina Solar's first-half revenue fell 28% year on year, and the company continued to suffer operating losses.

Trina Solar is one of the four largest Chinese solar module producers. Like its competitors, Trina embraced a vertically integrated model covering wafer, cell, and module production. However, it maintains the lowest level of vertical integration among its leading competitors. By maintaining a smaller solar wafer capacity, Trina retains the flexibility to manage volatile input costs while staying asset-light compared with its fully integrated peers.

Chinese solar producers Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, LONGi, Tongwei, and TCL Zhonghuan all reported losses in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. However, CSI Solar remained profitable in both quarters.

Trina Solar is one of the four largest Chinese solar module producers. Like its competitiors, Trina embraced a vertically integrated model covering wafer, cell, and module production. However, it maintains the lowest level of vertical integration among its leading competitors. Trina's lower solar wafer capacity offers a near-term advantage, as external procurement can be more cost-effective than internal supply due to severe overcapacity in solar wafers.

The US Department of Commerce has issued final affirmative determinations in the anti-dumping and countervailing investigations concerning solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where Jinko, JA, Trina, LONGi, and CSI have large manufacturing capacities.

On April 9, 2025, US President Trump announced a 90-day pause and reduced the reciprocal tariff to 10% for most trading partners, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand, where Jinko, JA, Trina, and LONGi have large manufacturing capacity. However, the tariff rate for China has been set at 125%.

Based on their preliminary 2024 results, the four solar manufacturers—Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, and TCL Zhonghuan—experienced significant losses in the fourth quarter amid depressed product prices. We have revised our 2024 earnings estimates for these companies to reflect the preliminary numbers but kept our forecasts for 2025-28, awaiting the release of their full results at the end of April. Our fair value estimates remain at CNY 11.00 for Jinko Solar, CNY 22.00 for JA Solar, CNY 30.90 for Trina Solar, and CNY 10.50 for TCL Zhonghuan. Despite all four being undervalued, we prefer CSI Solar for its better earnings outlook.

We initiate coverage on four Chinese solar module producers: Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar, and CSI Solar. Among these, Jinko, JA, and Trina rank among the top four global module suppliers alongside LONGi Green Energy, while CSI held the sixth position in module shipments in 2023. Due to intense competition and the cyclicality of the industry, we assign a no-moat rating to all four companies. Our fair value estimates are CNY 11 for Jinko, CNY 22 for JA, CNY 30.90 for Trina, and CNY 17.70 for CSI.

Trina Solar is one of the four largest Chinese solar module producers. Despite adopting a vertically integrated model, Trina has the smallest degree of vertical integration of its top competitors. As of 2023, Trina’s solar wafer capacity was only 73% of its solar cell capacity and is projected to drop to 52% by the end of 2024, according to the current capacity plan. The lower solar wafer capacity offers Trina a near-term advantage, as external procurement can be more cost-effective than internal supply due to severe overcapacity in solar wafers.