China Singyes Solar wins major project in sun-rich Uzbekistan

Shares of China Singyes Solar Technologies rose as much as 7.2 per cent on Thursday after the company unveiled its biggest overseas solar farm installation project win in the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan.

The company has won a tender to design, build and operate a 100 mega-watt, US$147 million solar farm for state-owned utility firm Uzbekenergo in the former Soviet republic, which is situated in the ancient silk road economic belt where Beijing is pushing for closer economic ties.

“The contract shows that the group’s capabilities in the field of solar engineering, procurement and construction meet the international standards required by Uzbekenergo,” Singyes, which also installs curtain walls for buildings, said in a filing to Hong Kong’s exchange late on Wednesday.

“This also reinforces the group’s strategy to follow the ‘one belt, one road’ initiative as announced by the Chinese government,” the Zhuhai-based company said. Its shares closed Thursday 3.7 per cent higher at HK$3.61.

Singyes financial controller Jimmy Yu Chon-man said the firm expects to make a gross margin of around 28 per cent – matching that of its domestic projects – despite higher transportation and labour costs for solar panels expected to be exported from eastern China over thousands of kilometres via rails and roads to the land-locked nation.

The higher costs are expected to be offset by a roughly 40 per cent premium on the project’s capital expenditure per unit of capacity compared to Chinese projects, he told the South China Morning Post in an interview.