China solar giants shed another 40,000 jobs last year as overcapacity persists

By Colleen Howe

BEIJING, Oct 14 (Reuters) - China's biggest solar manufacturers cut another fifth of their workforces last year, company filings show, as Beijing's pledge to tackle overcapacity has yet to pull the industry out of losses.

Longi Green Energy 601012.SS, Trina Solar 688599.SS, Jinko Solar 688223.SS, JA Solar 002459.SZ and Tongwei 600438.SS employed 154,061 people at the end of 2025, 40,589 fewer than a year earlier, according to a Reuters review of company filings.

The 21% workforce drop followed a 31% fall in 2024 reported by Reuters last year. Between 2024 and 2025, the five companies cut about half their workforces. None has publicly announced any layoffs over the period and none replied to requests for comment.

The job cuts reflect a paradox: Solar energy is booming, in particular as the Hormuz crisis sharpens the energy security argument for renewables, but Chinese manufacturers are still losing money.

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Chinese solar companies have built enough capacity to meet world demand roughly twice over, and have lost money, individually and collectively, for years despite record installations.

Plans launched last year by a group of top polysilicon manufacturers to consolidate the upstream sector and lift prices across the industry fell apart because of limited support from the sector, analysts say.

"The only way to quickly resolve this is either the plan last year, you acquire others, or suddenly there is an earthquake or natural disaster and half of the capacity is just suddenly gone," Jefferies analyst Alan Lau told Reuters.

While the filings cover 2025, Morningstar analyst Cheng Wang said job cuts have likely continued. The industry has been hit this year by pricing reforms in China that replaced guaranteed returns for renewables with market-based auctions, dampening demand for solar installations.

As a result, Jefferies expects China to install 150 to 200 gigawatts (GW) of solar this year, down from a record 315 GW in 2025. The global market also hasn't grown. China's exports of solar cells and panels fell 10% year on year from January to August, on a volume basis.

Shedding staff has helped companies trim costs, but it cannot fix an industry selling its products below cost, Lau said.

The top five manufacturers' average module selling price fell to $130 per kilowatt in 2025 from $350/kW in 2019, according to Thunder Said Energy, an energy technology research consultancy, and their average EBIT margin worsened to -13% from -8% in 2024. EBIT margin measures how much of a company's revenue it makes as profit, or loss, after accounting for costs and operating expenses.

"If you're not making gross margins, then no matter how much cost you cut, it is basically just reducing your loss," Jefferies' Lau said.

While the companies have not announced layoffs, public filings refer to shrinking workforces concentrated in production, R&D and administrative functions. Trina reported voluntary turnover of 18% to 19% in 2025, while Tongwei said its technical staff headcount fell by 21% and Longi said it scaled back research and development spend by 15% in 2025.

Morningstar's Wang said industry overcapacity has worsened this year because of shrinking demand compared to last, but that the industry may have finally hit bottom.

China's new energy-intensity standards for polysilicon and wafers, along with efficiency rules for modules, take effect on January 1, 2027. That should help remove excess capacity from the market because projects that can't meet the more stringent standards could be forced to shut down.

"While overcapacity is expected to persist in 2027, we believe the worst of this downturn will be behind the industry," Wang said.