A newly established 'advanced solar wafer manufacturer' Gaojing Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. in China has contracted Daqo New Energy to supply it 45,900 MT polysilicon to support the former's plans to set up 50 GW large size wafer capacity.
Set up by a team of senior executives with extensive experience in the solar industry, explained Daqo, Gaojing Solar has the backing of investment firm IDG Capital and leading state-owned enterprise Huafa Group.
Gaojing Solar's 50 GW wafer production plans will be executed in 3 phases, with construction for 15 GW under phase I already ongoing and expected to be completed by the end of June 2021. Gaojing officially started construction of its wafer production earlier this year (see China PV News Snippets: Hongyuan, Arctech, HIUV, Gaojing). The first 15 GW capacity is likely to become operational by September 2021. In 2022, it expects another 15 GW to come online under phase II, and remaining 20 GW is scheduled to become operational by the end of 2023.
"We see market opportunities for 210mm large-size solar wafers in the next few years," said Gaojing's Chairman and General Manager Zhiqun Xu. "We believe our advantages in cost and quality thanks in part to Daqo's support on the high-quality raw material side will enable us to compete as a leader in the solar wafers sector going forward.
As per the long term agreement with Daqo, the polysilicon supplier deliver its high-purity mono-grade polysilicon between June 2021 and May 2024 for an undisclosed price, though they did share that actual prices will be negotiated on monthly basis according to market conditions. Gaojing will make an advance payment to Daqo.
This is one of the several long term agreements for polysilicon supply for Daqo in recent times. It is fully booked for 2021 and 2022, and has more orders coming in for beyond that as well. Barring the forced labor concerns at its Xinjiang facility that might hamper its business prospects, the company is otherwise well placed to benefit from higher polysilicon prices (see Solid Q4/2020 Reported By China's Daqo New Energy).
Next to Gaojing, another Chinese company is trying to breach into the wafer segment. Recently, it became public that solar PV production equipment maker Shuangliang Eco-Energy Co., Ltd. is venturing into ingot and wafer production sensing the growing demand for large sized wafers. Under phase I, the plan is to develop 20 GW of ingot and 20 GW of monocrystalline silicon large size solar wafers in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (see Shuangliang Eco-Energy: 40 GW Mono Wafer Capacity).
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