Pioneer of "Dual Carbon"! GCL Group Listed Again among Top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises 2021
On September 25, two lists were released. One was the list of 2021 China Top 500 Enterprises released in Changchun, Jilin and the other was the list of China Top 500 Private Enterprises released in Changsha, Hunan. GCL Group maintains its ranking among the 100 billion club, listed first in the 2021 China Top 500 Green Energy Companies, the 222nd in the Top 500 Chinese Enterprises, the 97th in the Top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Companies, No. 31 in the Top 100 Leading Enterprises in Strategic Emerging Industries, the 72nd in the Top 100 Chinese Multinational Companies; the 78th among the Top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises, and the 41st among the Top 500 Chinese Private Manufacturing Companies.
The dual Top 500 summits were grandly held and the dual Top 500 lists were respectively released in the background of the “dual carbon” goals – one year after the goals were announced. The organizers themed "dual carbon". Green and low-carbon cyclic development path and new competitiveness paradigm of large companies are reported, evaluated and explored. GCL Group is dual-listed and is highly graded in terms of R&D investment, R&D intensity, innovation index, sustainability index, industry chain driving force, and other evaluation dimensions. GCL champions in the green energy industry in China.
As commented by Miao Rong, the chief researcher of the China Enterprise Confederation, “GCL has entered the energy industry with electricity as its mainstay, dedicated to the utilization of PV power generation to realize parity and even lower-cost grid power, to innovations of integrated circuit materials for technology breakthroughs. GCL is practicing green and low-carbon development with its integration and streamlining of solar, wind, storage, and hydrogen charging. It keeps gaining values and new momentum through ‘hard technology’, enabling itself to update under the guidance of the ‘dual-carbon’ goal and keeping pace with China’s strategic development. GCL’s success fully reflects its over 30 years of accumulation of experience, in which it grows its resilience and sustainability in times of change. GCL Group outstands with a sampling effect among the top 500 enterprises.”
During the update cycle of China's top 500 lists, GCL Group has been confronted with a series of challenges, including the delayed payment of large amount of subsidies, financial deleveraging, industry policy changes, and the Covid-19 outbreak. GCL didn’t wait for help but turned to itself for surviving and thriving. GCL has tried whatever works- restructuring, debt reduction, reforming, “losing weight” by assets reallocation and reengineering its driving force. Financial measures like equity transfers, asset management, and project disposals have been applied to push the debt ratio down to an absolute safe and reasonable range. New investment projects are financed by funds and high-quality strategic investors are introduced. These are all measures to reduce new debts and to set up risk management firewalls. With all the struggles and active innovations, GCL has managed to move itself up in the industrial value chain, from mid-end processing and manufacturing towards higher-end control of disruptive core technologies and key raw materials. Development gears are shifted into mobile energy and hydrogen energy. Its mastery of new kinetic energy represented by granular silicon, perovskite, and semiconductor materials has promoted GCL into a promising "second growth curve", and has defined it a green and low-carbon technology-driven enterprise.
The "dual carbon" goal has forced industries into green transformation ever since its being proposed a year ago. GCL Group has taken advantage of the trend and has shown its core advantages in green development. The stocks of its listed companies have risen overall, and their market value has soared. Meanwhile, a number of industry-upgrading funds have been successfully established. A series of private placements have been implemented. Incremental and iterative green and low-carbon technology projects have been intensively laid out. All these have added up to a rapid formation of a positive internal cycle of production and operation. GCL’s granular silicon obtained the first "carbon footprint" authoritative certificate within the domestic industry, and its parameters broke the record for photovoltaic raw materials in the world. The long-term customer list is growing, and production volumes and scales are increasing. The 100 MW perovskite project will be put into operation soon. The launch of a super module factory has entered the countdown. The construction of the first power stations for mobile energy charging and swapping have been accelerated as well as other hydrogen energy demonstration projects. The Rudong LNG receiving terminal project has been approved by the state, and the construction of the reservoir area and wharf will start soon. Electronic-grade polysilicon and 12-inch large silicon wafer projects have broken the “bottleneck” for its leapfrogging technologies. GCL fits well into China’s "big country hard tech" theme. Its market continues to expand and its IPO is pacing up. All the “green” activities under the "dual-carbon" background have demonstrated GCL’s velocity and vitality.
For GCL’s being “dual-listed”, Zhu Gongshan, Chairman of GCL Group, commented that achievements only represent the past, and a green and low-carbon future requires continuous dedication and devotion. GCL shall maintain loyal to the nation’s big strategies, leading the green energy industry in line with China’s development. GCL upholds the principles to invest with caution, to advance with qualities, and to pursue with fruitful results. "Enterprises are just like people. At a certain stage, they must beware of the 'three highs'. For GCL, in the past two years, the divestiture of heavy assets and the investment in hard technology have balanced its portfolio and enabled it to ‘travel light’. The equity division reform has killed inertia and lifted the morale high. Together we are striving for a zero-carbon future and common prosperity. All these have given GCL confidence to set sails again at the age of 30, the age of independence, and to embark on a new journey with youthful vigor".
Global climate action has ushered the world into an era of green and low-carbon development. Green enterprises and green economy will shape a green life and a green future. Prior to the release of the China Top 500 lists, GCL Group won the third place in the "China Energy Enterprises' Contribution to Low-Carbon Development", and the fourth place in the 2021 World Top 500 New Energy Enterprises, and the first place in China.
