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Wood Mackenzie report names winners in solar module manufacturing for early 2025
7/1/2026
News
JA Solar and Trinasolar have jointly topped a Wood Mackenzie 1H2025 report of 38 crystalline silicon solar module manufacturers.
‘Despite dominating 62% of global shipments, the world's leading solar manufacturers are feeling the squeeze of a difficult market. The top 10 [manufacturers] reported a collective $2.2bn net loss in 1H2025, a result of steep price declines that have impacted even the industry’s largest players,’ said Yana Hryshko, Head of Global Solar Supply Chain at Wood Mackenzie.
The report contends that the top manufacturers are proving resilient to ongoing pricing pressure and oversupply, which has continued to define the market. The top 10 manufacturers maintained an average [factory line] utilisation rate of 70% in 1H2025, in contrast to the global average of just 43% for all other manufacturers. It picked out Adani Solar and DMEGC Solar as maintaining a 100% utilisation rate.
The top 10 manufacturers collectively shipped 224 GW of modules, representing 62% of global shipments in the first half of the year.
Wood Mackenzie calculated its own scores for each manufacturer to determine the rankings.
The report’s authors also say that Chinese manufacturers are being challenged by contenders from India, South Korea, Singapore and the US, a competitive landscape that is being driven by tightening trade policies.
However, within a new ranking of 29 suppliers which Wood Mackenzie named ‘Grade A’, only a few can be placed in the western hemisphere: AESOLAR of Germany, SEG Solar of the US and possibly the firm Canadian Solar, listed as Chinese/Canadian.
Looking forward into 2026–2027, the report’s authors offered three predictions.
First is vertical integration. The authors said: ‘Wafer-to-module control is becoming the new competitive frontier, as many of the top 20 manufacturers expand into the MENA region for tariff-resilient production’.
Second is higher performance. The authors said: ‘The next efficiency leap, driven by TOPCon 3.0 and back-contact technologies, will push mainstream module performance above 25%, accelerating the retirement of lower-grade manufacturing lines.’
Third is supply consolidation. The authors said: ‘Weaker suppliers will face shutdowns or mergers as leading manufacturers sustain utilisation rates of 60–75%. As global demand strengthens and pricing stabilises from 2026 onward, the industry will shift from survival mode to strategic investment.’
