(Yicai Global) May 25 -- Shares of Jinko Solar moved up after the Chinese solar panel manufacturer said it will build a pioneering CNY56 billion (USD7.9 billion) industrial park for photovoltaics in northern China.

Jinko Solar [SHA: 688223] jumped as much as 6.1 percent to CNY13.83 (USD2) intraday in Shanghai and was 3.6 percent up as of 12.51 p.m. In New York, the shares traded 0.6 percent up in after-hours trading [NYSE: JKS].

The company will construct a production base in Shanxi province to make products along the PV industry chain, including silicon single crystal rods, wafers, and modules, with an annual capacity of 56 gigawatts at each step, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement yesterday.

The Shanxi base will become the world's biggest production base for N-type solar wafers, a more efficient type of solar panel parts than P-type wafers, Securities Daily reported today, citing an executive at the firm. Moreover, it will become the world's largest facility for the triplet of wafers, cells, and modules, the source added.

The project will be built in four stages and each of them will add an annual capacity of 14 GW for each product category. Construction of the first phase of the project is expected to finish in the first quarter of 2024, while the second phase should start in the second quarter, and the final two stages will be done in 2025.

Jinko Solar has been accelerating its expansion since its secondary listing on the Star Market in January 2022. The firm is set to be able to make 75 GW of monocrystalline wafers and a similar capacity of solar cells per year by December while its solar module capacity should rise to 90 GW, according to its website.

Jinko Solar delivered 44.3 GW of PV modules last year. It earned CNY2.9 billion (USD410.1 million) in net profit and CNY82.7 billion (USD11.7 billion) in revenue, according to its 2022 annual results.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi