BEIJING, April 30 (Reuters) - The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran is boosting overseas interest in renewable energy, a major Chinese solar manufacturer said this week as producers reported mixed first-quarter results, but weaker demand at home is weighing on the outlook for the sector.
The two-month war in the Middle East has blocked the key Strait of Hormuz, sending oil and gas prices surging. That has left countries scrambling for alternative energy supplies and working to shore up their economies against future shocks.
However, overall global demand for solar panels is likely to decrease by some 5-10% year-on-year in 2026, as a 20% drop in China, the world's biggest solar market, outweighs a 10% boost in non-China demand, JinkoSolar's chief marketing officer Gener Miao told a results briefing late on Wednesday.
The Iran war and the resulting energy crisis are leading to renewed interest in renewables, the company said.
"Recent geopolitical disruptions have impacted some shipping lines and temporarily affected our shipping costs and delivery schedule, but at the same time geopolitical conflicts have increased the global focus on energy security," JinkoSolar chairman and CEO Li Xiande told the results briefing.
"We are also seeing continued rising interest in our solutions from commercial, residential and power customers."
The weaker demand in China is down to a change to power pricing that introduced a market-based mechanism and cut into returns for renewable power plant projects, analysts say.
Other analysts and industry participants have cautioned they aren't seeing much of a boost from war-induced demand so far, and that the market actually cooled off in April after producers front-loaded orders in the first quarter to get ahead of a cancellation of the export tax rebate.
In any case, they say the war-induced renewables demand won't be enough to fix China's massive overcapacity, which has pushed prices below profitable levels.
Earnings were mixed, with some companies reporting narrowing losses while others posted wider deficits.
JinkoSolar's net loss shrunk to roughly 463 million yuan ($67.2 million) in the first quarter of 2026 from about 1.32 billion yuan a year earlier. The company said module prices improved and its energy storage business maintained strong momentum.
Trina Solar also saw losses decline to 234 million yuan, down from 1.61 billion yuan, because of increased revenues from energy storage. Trina shares rose more than 8% in morning trading on Thursday while JinkoSolar rose more than 3%.
Peer Longi Green Energy said its net losses widened to 1.92 billion yuan in the quarter, up from 1.43 billion yuan in the corresponding quarter of 2025, because of exchange rate fluctuations.
Longi stocks settled down 2.36% on Wednesday after the results.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
