American chemicals producer DuPont, catering to the solar PV industry through its metallization paste business called Solamet has sold the same to a Chinese company called Jiangsu Suote Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. Further, Chinese conductive silver paste manufacturer DK Electronic Materials (DKEM) is buying 100% stake in Jiangsu Suote Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. valuing it at RMB 1.247 billion, a deal that's still under process.
Metallization pastes are made out of silver and then screen printed onto the surface of solar cells, collecting electricity produced by the solar cells and transporting it out.
DKEM's acquisition of Solamet covers all global products under the brand, intellectual property rights, technical knowledge related to the metallization paste products, manufacturing assets, R&D assets, and also the personnel in the technical field.
In a stock exchange announcement, DKEM said after completing the acquisition of Solamet, the main business of Jiangsu Suote Electronic Materials will be research and development, production and sale of new electronic pastes.
In a statement, Solamet said with the help of Chinese capital and industrial resources it plants to continue to lead the innovation of PV metallization.
TaiyangNews interviewed DKEM founder and CEO Weili Shi in 2018, when the company was still in its rather early stages but already had very ambitious plans (see High Performance from the start).
Days before official confirmation by Solamet, local Chinese media had reported DKEM being interested in acquiring DuPont's silver paste business for around RMB 1.247 billion ($192 million). According to a report by DigiTimes, DuPont's silver paste patents are less favorable in the Chinese market where customers are more price conscious rather than focusing on patents.
After selling its solar cell silver past business, DuPont continues to be active in solar through its Tedlar based sheets for backsheet composites. TaiyangNews covered the subject of backsheets and encapsulation in its 2020 survey which had DuPont also as a participant. The TaiyangNews Solar Backsheet & Encapsulation Market Survey can be downloaded for free here.
TaiyangNews has looked into silver pastes for solar cell contacts covering products and players, including DKEM and DuPont. The TaiyangNews Market Survey on Metallization 2019/20 is available for download here.