Xinte Energy, the Chinese polysilicon producer, suffered a raw material shortage during H1/2021; it was short of cold hydrogenation materials of its existing production lines. Compounded with the price increase of raw materials and routine maintenance of its production lines, the company experienced an increase in average production costs on annual basis.
It sold 35,400 tons of polysilicon during the reporting period, reflecting an annual increase of around 36%, with this business division's revenues having gone up 157.36% to RMB 3.53 billion. Gross profit for Xinte Energy added up to RMB 1.6 billion, which was up by over 1,288.14% over H1/2020 (see Chinese Polysilicon Producer's H1/2020 Profits Decline).
On the whole, the group – which is also active in the power plant operation (BOO) and engineering, construction, contracting (ECC) of solar and wind power projects – reported RMB 7.75 billion in revenues, rising over 130% from previous year.
Xinte Energy is currently enhancing its existing production line in Xinjiang through technological innovation and other measures to increase the production capacity of 34,000 tons annually by Q1/2022. Once it is achieved, the group will have an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons in Xinjiang, thereby lowering its average polysilicon production cost.
It is also constructing another 100,000 tons polysilicon project through Inner Mongolia Xinte where it will use an advanced, efficient and – what it calls – environment friendly cold hydrogenation, distillation, reduction and tail gas recovery technologies. The company explains this will help it create a digital and intelligent polysilicon plant with better product quality, lower production cost and higher overall efficiency. Its completion scheduled for H1/2022 will take the company's total polysilicon production capacity to 200,000 tons annually.
In February 2021, the Chinese company had entered into an investment framework agreement with Baotou Municipal Government to build a high-purity polysilicon project for 200,000 tons in China, to be developed in 2 phases of 100,000 tons each (see Xinte Energy To Build 200,000 Tons Polysilicon Fab).
Going forward, Xinte Energy seems to be positioned comfortably having secured polysilicon sale contracts with a number of downstream silicon wafer customers to be delivered over the next 3 years to 5 years. However, it added, "In the second half of 2021, due to the rebound in demand from PV terminals, it is expected that the supply of polysilicon will remain less than the demand."
Xinte Energy also referred to China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Silicon Industry Branch to claim the country's polysilicon production capacity to have reached around 227,000 tons in H1/2021, having grown 10.7% since previous year.