Germany’s Heraeus Sells Solar Silver Paste Business To Chinese Group

Germany technology group Heraeus has offloaded its solar silver paste business that it operates through Heraeus Photovoltaic to China’s Haitian Water Group for whom this investment marks its entry into the silver paste industry with strong growth potential. 

Silver is used as a conductive paste for crystalline silicon solar cells to help boost their power conversion efficiency.  

Local media reports in China reported fierce competition in the PV market as the reason for Heraeus to withdraw from the silver paste business. Incidentally, the PV industry is advancing in its efforts to shake off its reliance on expensive silver, heralding the advent of zero busbar (0BB) that brings down the use of silver. Even paste makers themselves are responding to this call from the industry by bringing down the content of pure silver, replacing it with mostly copper, as was shared by the paste makers at the TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies Conference 2024 on days 1, 2 and days 3 and 4, including Fusion New Materials, Solamet Materials Science, DKEM.

According to Yicai Global, the assets Haitian is buying from Heraeus have been operating at a loss since 2023. The German group celebrated 50^th anniversary of entering the Chinese market on October 30, 2024.     

The RMB 502 million ($68.8 million) all-cash deal will see Heraeus giving up its solar silver paste business operations as well as manufacturing facilities in China and Singapore to Haitian, along with its management team, patents, R&D platform, customer resources, and supply chain.

Haitian will operate this business through a newly formed subsidiary that’s tentatively called Haitian Photovoltaic.

The acquisition is scheduled to close in H1 2025, stated Haitian in a stock exchange announcement.