Chinese polysilicon suppliers Tongwei, GCL Technology and Daqo New Energy continued to stay on the top 3 positions of Bernreuter Research's world's top 10 polysilicon producers list, while their compatriot Xinte Energy pushed Germany's Wacker Chemie to the 5th position.
All 4 top polysilicon producers on its list produced over 100,000 MT each in 2022. Tongwei alone produced almost 160,000 MT in H2/2022. had an annual production capacity of around 345,000 MT at the end of 2022, according to the analysis.
Tongwei's total effective production capacity reached approximately 345,000 MT at the end of 2022, as against 260,000 MT stated the company officially. At the end of 2021, Tongwei's annual production capacity stood at 205,000 MT which Bernreuter expected to scale up to 370,000 MT by 2023 (see World's Top 3 Largest Polysilicon Makers Are Chinese).
Tongwei's performance prompted Bernreuter Research's Head Johannes Bernreuter to comment, "How quickly Tongwei increases its process efficiency and upgrades existing equipment is remarkable."
Another Chinese company, Asia Silicon rose to 6th position from 8th having ramped up its capacity from 22,000 MT to 92,000 MT.
The top 6 Chinese manufacturers have additional capacity of roughly 1.5 million MT in the pipeline for 2023 and 2024, as the country achieved a share of 89% in the global solar-grade polysilicon output in 2022. More is expected to come online in the country as 'more than a dozen new entrants are building or ramping up new polysilicon plants', according to the analysts.
Bernreuter warns it could lead to oversupply as global PV industry won't be able to absorb such volumes. He added, "It looks like Chinese investors once again have to learn this the hard way given the fact that they are still announcing new polysilicon projects in 2023."
For its top 10 list, Bernreuter says these are not ranked according to production capacity, but to actual output in 2022. In some cases, the production capacity is significantly higher than output if the capacity has not yet been fully ramped up.
Earlier this year, Bernreuter said global imports into China will be dropping further as the country expands domestic polysilicon capacity, while demand for non-Chinese supply from the US picks up steam (see Polysilicon Imports To China Down In 2022).
Tongwei CTO Guoqiang Xing spoke about the company's solar module strategy with TaiyangNews' Managing Director Michael Schmela during our Solar Module Innovations Conference 2023. A summary of their conversation is available here.