China Solar PV News Snippets

Trina conducts groundbreaking ceremony on Huai'an wafer facility; Hunan Huamin subsidiary to supply 15 GW of wafers to Huasun; Autowell to acquire Shanghai D-Flow's 100% equity stake in POLAR; Tongwei and Buckingham Style sign framework agreement; MIIT China's July 2023 update on PV rolled glass industry.

Trina starts construction on 50 GW monocrystalline silicon wafer facility: Solar module manufacturer Trina Solar has broken ground on a new monocrystalline silicon wafer fab in Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone. The agreement signing between the 2 parties took place in July (see China Solar PV News Snippets). At present, the main steel structure of the 50 GW plant is being hoisted, with equipment installation planned for December and the facility is expected to start production in Q1 of 2024. The accumulated investment in Trina Solar's Huai'an facility has reached RMB 20 billion ($2.74 billion). Once fully up and running, the facility is expected to realize an annual output value of about RMB 80 billion ($11 billion), and will be Trina Solar's largest integrated manufacturing base for modules.

Hunan Huamin subsidiary signs long-term supply agreement with Huasun: Honghui New Energy, a holding subsidiary of Hunan Huamin Holding Group Co., Ltd., has signed a supply agreement with Huasun. Under the contract, Huasun and its related parties plan to purchase a total of 15 GW of monocrystalline silicon wafers for heterojunction cells from Honghui New Energy from November 2023 to November 2026, with an annual purchase volume of about 5GW. The actual sales price will be determined by both parties through monthly negotiation. The total contract value, at current market prices and the purchase quantity agreed, is estimated to be RMB 5.5 billion ($755 million).

Autowell Technology to acquire 100% equity stake in POLAR: Automation equipment manufacturer Autowell Technology has announced its intention to acquire 100% equity of POLAR held by Shanghai D-Flow Technology Co., Ltd. The company plans to pay RMB 270 million ($37 million) in cash for this transaction. Autowell stated that this acquisition will improve the company's research and development and production capacity of cell equipment, enrich the company's product structure in the field of cell equipment, and form a new business growth point.

Tongwei Solar signs agreement with Buckingham Style: Integrated solar PV manufacturer Tongwei Solar Co. Ltd. has signed a cooperation framework agreement with Buckingham Style Ltd. According to the agreement, Tongwei Solar will continue to supply Tongwei modules for Buckingham Style's multiple PV projects in Europe over the next 2 years.

MIIT China releases PV rolled glass industry report: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has released the July 2023 report for the photovoltaic rolled glass industry.

• January 2023 to July 2023 cumulative output was 13.72 million tons, up 67% YoY. July output was 2.155 million tons, up 58.9% YoY.
• Average prices of 2 mm and 3.2 mm PV rolled glass were RMB 18.4 /m² ($2.53) and RMB 25.6 /m² ($3.51), down 12.3% and 5.7% YoY respectively. July average prices of RMB 17.8 /m² ($2.44) and RMB 25.5 /m² ($3.50) were down 16.5% and 7.7% YoY, respectively.

MIIT China recently reported a 65% increase in polysilicon production for solar modules (see Chinese Solar PV Industry's Output Growing).