(Yicai) March 19 -- Shares of Longi Green Energy Technology fell despite the Chinese photovoltaic equipment giant denied market rumors claiming it would let go 30 percent of its workforce.

Longi [SHA: 601012] was trading down 1.7 percent at CNY21.30 (USD2.96) as of 2.00 p.m. in Shanghai today. The stock, which hit a four-year record-low of CNY17.60 in early February, has plunged around 69 percent since July 2022, when PV stocks entered a downward trend.

It is not true that Longi will lay off about one-third of its staff, but some optimization at relevant positions within the company will be carried out on the backdrop of the market situation, a spokesperson at Xi’an-based Longi told Yicai today.

Yicai later learned from various sources that Longi’s personnel adjustment this time would be about 5 percent of its total workforce.

Longi had about 80,000 employees as of the end of last year.

Longi has been facing operating challenges after experiencing rapid development in recent years because of the prolonged decline in product prices caused by overcapacity in the PV industry.

The company’s net profit narrowed 44 percent to CNY2.5 billion (USD350 million), and revenue fell 19 percent to CNY29.4 billion (USD4.1 billion) in the third quarter of last year from a year earlier, according to its latest earnings report.

Editor: Futura Costaglione