China Longyuan posts higher interim profits with lower wind wastage
Longyuan is not the only renewable energy producer to report improved earnings. Rivals Huaneng Renewables and Datang Renewable have also seen first-half profit increases
The firm, a unit of China Guodian Group, one of the nation’s big five state-owned power generation majors, recorded a net profit of 2.42 billion yuan for the year’s first six months, up from 2.28 billion yuan in the same period last year.
The profit is in line with the average 2.43 billion yuan estimate of four analysts polled by Bloomberg, and amounted to 61.6 per cent of the 4.06 billion yuan full year average estimate of 29 analysts.
“[The higher profit] was mainly attributable to the increase in the installed capacity and the higher utilisation hours in the wind power segment,” chairman Qiao Baoping said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse on Tuesday after market close.
First half revenue surged 9.7 per cent year-on-year to 12.3 billion yuan, on the back of an 11 per cent growth in wind power output and a 13.6 per cent rise in coal-fired power generated.
Operating profit from wind farms operation rose 14.5 per cent year-on-year to 4.45 billion yuan, while that of coal-fired power plunged 41.6 per cent to 340.7 million yuan as the average coal cost per tonne surged 55 per cent.
Its wind farms recorded an average utilisation of 1,030 hours in the year’s first half, up 5.1 per cent year-on-year, reflecting lower wastage of wind power generating capacity arising from grid bottlenecks.