[Cloud Solutions Spotlight]The photovoltaic industry is undergoing a major shake-up; the era of ‘price wars’ is over

In 2026, the solar industry is undergoing an unprecedented period of profound adjustment.

From 1 July, the fixed feed-in tariff for commercial and industrial distributed solar power was officially abolished; all electricity generated is now traded on the spot market and settled at the prevailing spot price, completely overturning the investment logic that previously relied on fixed subsidies. From 1 April, export tax rebate rates for core products such as wafers, solar cells, modules and inverters were slashed from 9 per cent to zero, resulting in a direct loss of 90,000 yuan in profit for every 1 million yuan of exported goods. Meanwhile, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) came into force at the start of the year, whilst US anti-circumvention investigations have continued to expand to regions such as Africa and South Korea, with trade barriers mounting layer by layer.

Even more severe are the structural challenges within the industry itself. According to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, module output in the first half of 2026 fell by 35.1 per cent year-on-year, with 18 out of 26 listed photovoltaic companies deep in the red, posting combined losses estimated at between 12.1 billion and 15.3 billion yuan. The lowest tender price for modules has fallen below 0.7 yuan per watt, far below production costs.

The good news is that the ‘benchmarks’ for industry regulation are being rolled out at a rapid pace: three mandatory national standards on energy consumption and efficiency are due to come into force in January 2027, which are expected to phase out approximately 30 per cent of total production capacity; the ‘General Rules for Cost Accounting Models in the Photovoltaic Industry’ were officially released on 27 July, standardising cost accounting practices across the entire supply chain. It is widely believed within the industry that, following the accelerated phasing out of inefficient production capacity, the supply-demand balance is likely to improve in the second half of the year.

This implies that for the surviving enterprises, the competition will no longer revolve around who can offer the lowest price, but rather on who possesses a more robust management system, higher operational efficiency and stronger global capabilities.

The Four Major Management Pain Points for PV Manufacturing Enterprises

Through in-depth collaboration with dozens of PV enterprises, we have identified that the management pain points exposed during this period of industry adjustment are highly concentrated:

Pain Point 1: Global Operations Are ‘Fragmented and Disconnected’

As the industry shifts from ‘Made in China, Sold Globally’ to ‘Manufactured Globally, Sold Globally’, companies have established factories and operate through multiple entities across various countries. However, systems in different regions remain fragmented, data standards are inconsistent, headquarters lack a clear overview of global operations, and related-party transactions and transfer pricing are handled entirely manually.

Challenge 2: Production Planning Is ‘Inaccurate and Inflexible’

PV manufacturing involves multiple production stages—including wafers, cells and modules—with complex product SKUs (power ratings, efficiency tiers, colour specifications). Coupled with limited production capacity constraints and frequent customised customer requirements, the MRP logic of traditional ERP systems struggles to cope; production scheduling relies on experience, whilst adjustments are made via telephone.

Pain Point 3: Cost Accounting – “Inaccurate and Untraceable”

Order-based quoting and cost accounting are essential for PV enterprises. However, due to sharp fluctuations in raw material prices, the complexity of allocating process costs, and significant differences in cost structures across overseas factories, many companies are still unable to achieve granular cost and profit accounting at the order level.

Pain Point 4: Supply Chain “Invisible and Unmanageable”

Information regarding end-to-end quality traceability from polysilicon to modules, supplier collaboration, logistics tracking and export delivery management is scattered across multiple systems. Issues are only investigated after they arise, with a lack of proactive early warnings and end-to-end visibility.

How did they break the deadlock? Three real-life case studies

Case Study 1: Wuxi Boda – Integrating Global Trade and Production Chains

Wuxi Boda is a leading global manufacturer of solar cells and modules, employing over 1,000 people. With a significant increase in orders from Europe and the US, Boda’s cell factories in Vietnam and Cambodia came on stream one after another, creating an urgent need for a global ERP system to replace the existing domestic system.

Key Challenges: Disconnect between global trade and production chains; inability to integrate group-wide procurement and production planning; lack of granular management of overseas factories; and inability to trace order costs and profits throughout the entire process.

Solution: Through the implementation of Oracle NetSuite + PVMDS, Boda has established a single system supporting multi-business-model operations—fully integrating global trade, the global supply chain, domestic and overseas work order management, and the detailed management of overseas factories. This has enabled the integration of group-wide procurement and production planning, as well as the implementation of end-to-end order traceability and detailed cost and profit accounting.

Key Outcomes: The Group has established global operational capabilities, achieving end-to-end data integration across the entire industrial chain—from 7GW of wafers and 6GW of solar cells to 5GW of modules—truly realising the vision of ‘one system managing the globe’.

Case Study 2: Xiehang Energy – Rebuilding a Global ERP Architecture from Turkey to China

Headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, Xiehang Energy has three factories with over a decade of production history, with manufacturing bases spanning Turkey and Nantong, China. As the business expanded globally, the existing local ERP system in Turkey could no longer meet the group’s management requirements.

Key Challenges: Difficulties in managing multiple entities across national borders; inability to meet production line scheduling and MRP requirements specific to the photovoltaic industry; complex local financial and tax compliance requirements in Turkey; and low efficiency in the closed-loop process from order to production.

Solution: By rebuilding the global business and financial architecture using Oracle NetSuite, combined with Hitpoint Cloud’s proprietary financial localisation plug-ins and a network of local partners, multi-ledger management and financial and tax compliance in Turkey were achieved. At the same time, production line scheduling, MRP calculations and MES integration have significantly improved production planning and procurement efficiency.

Key Outcomes: A global group management framework has been implemented; tax and financial compliance issues in Turkey have been resolved; production line scheduling has been upgraded from manual, experience-driven processes to system-automated optimisation; and a highly efficient closed-loop process from order to production has been achieved.

Case Study 3: SEG Solar – A US-based PV manufacturer’s choice for globalisation

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, SEG Solar is a Tier 1 US solar module manufacturer. By 2024, its global production capacity had expanded to over 5.5 GW, with cell production capacity reaching 2 GW, and installations in the US and European markets exceeding 2 GW.

As a manufacturer targeting the high-end markets in the US and Europe, SEG Solar required an ERP system capable of supporting global operations, meeting multi-country compliance requirements, and offering in-depth management capabilities specific to the solar industry. Oracle NetSuite’s capabilities for global multi-ledger, multi-currency and multi-accounting standard management, combined with PVMDS’s industry-specific features for the solar sector, made it the ideal choice for SEG Solar.

Furthermore, we have successful case studies in the fields of PV power plant operations and PV plus energy storage—a European-backed PV power plant company (Longrui) has achieved full lifecycle management from project approval and construction through to operation and maintenance, whilst a leading energy storage enterprise (Delan Minghai) has integrated the entire supply chain linking overseas B2B/B2C e-commerce with domestic R&D and production. The breadth of industry scenarios determines the depth of a solution provider’s expertise.

PVMDS: A digital solution tailored for PV manufacturing

Drawing on 17 years of in-depth experience with Oracle NetSuite, Hitpoint Cloud has launched PVMDS (Photovoltaic Manufacturing and Distribution Solution), an integrated platform covering the core business operations of photovoltaic enterprises:

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Key differentiators of PVMDS:

• SKU management tailored to the PV industry: Native support for industry-specific attributes such as module power tiers, efficiency grades and colour specifications; automatic conversion between multiple units across sales, procurement, production and inventory; advanced BOM management adapted to the multi-tiered structure of cells, wafers and modules; industry-specific batch management ensuring full traceability from raw materials to finished products.

• APS + MRP dual-engine production scheduling: Built-in capacity calendars for module and cell production lines, with automatic and optimised scheduling under constrained capacity; support for multiple planning modes including DTO (Design-to-Order), CTO (Configure-to-Order), MTO (Make-to-Order) and MTS (Make-to-Stock); support for substitute material switching and automatic delivery deadline alerts during production execution, with MRP breakdowns traceable to every level.

• CRM-enhanced end-to-end sales management: Comprehensive CRM functionality covering leads, opportunities and quotations; framework orders support the cascading of sales orders in batches; end-to-end management of outbound and inbound logistics; a customer portal allows online viewing and downloading of order tracking reports; supports customer rebate management and order-based quotations.

• SRM-enhanced procurement collaboration: MRP automatically generates procurement requirements in conjunction with purchase requisitions; supports tendering and price comparison for bulk materials such as solar cells; the supplier portal enables online collaboration with subcontracting and logistics suppliers; integrated procurement quality inspection, contract fulfilment and logistics tracking.

• Industry-specific production and cost management: process-level production management and line-side warehouse (issuance, return and consumption) control; end-to-end tracking of module serial numbers, solar cell batches and raw material batches; precise allocation of manufacturing overheads by process, supporting standard cost analysis and cost roll-back, enabling order-level cost and profit accounting.

• Global financial and tax integration: Generates multiple sets of financial statements (multiple ledgers) from a single set of business data; automatically consolidates financial statements and offsets related-party transactions; automates inter-company order processing; supported by Hitpoint’s proprietary China tax and accounting localisation plug-in (account classification mapping, Golden Tax interface, voucher printing) and global partner network to ensure compliance with local tax and accounting regulations overseas.

• End-to-End Quality Traceability: Bidirectional traceability of component serial numbers—tracing upwards to raw material batches and suppliers, and downwards to production processes, quality inspection data and dispatch records (Flash Data)—to meet the audit and compliance requirements of overseas customers.

• On-demand selection and incremental deployment: Organisations can flexibly select modules (ERP Core, APS, CRM, SRM, MES, WMS, TMS, BI, etc.) according to their current business stage; there is no need to implement everything at once, and the system can be expanded gradually as the business grows.

Why choose Hitpoint Cloud?

• 17 years’ specialisation in Oracle NetSuite, with over 400 successful client case studies; we are the earliest and most experienced Oracle NetSuite partner in China

• FY25 North Asia SP Partner of the Year, and recipient of the Oracle NetSuite Five-Star Partner honour for several consecutive years

• The only authorised Oracle NetSuite training centre in China, with an in-depth and systematic understanding of the product

• Extensive expertise in the photovoltaic industry: covering the full spectrum of scenarios including manufacturing, distribution, power plant operations and energy storage

• Global implementation capabilities: Offices in seven locations—Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Hong Kong and the US—providing integrated support for overseas financial and tax compliance, logistics and warehousing, and IT implementation

• Proprietary enhanced products: China-localised SuiteApps for finance and taxation, MRP SuiteApps, CRM, and Hitpoint XAgent—an enterprise-grade AI agent natively integrated with Oracle NetSuite—continuously expanding the capabilities of Oracle NetSuite

In this period of industry consolidation, differences in management systems are the defining factor.

As inefficient production capacity is driven out of the market by policy and price wars reach their conclusion, the enterprises that will truly weather the cycle are those that have strategically positioned themselves on a digital foundation and continue to invest in their global capabilities.