Solargiga invests $52.8m in new China ingot and wafer fab

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The board of directors at Solargiga Energy Holding have announce that Jinzhou Yangguang Energy Co., Ltd., a subsidiary completely owned by Solargiga, will develop a project in Quijing City in the Yunnan Province located in China, which will happen in two phases.

Firstly, a RMB 350 million ($52.8 million) investment will create a new fab with an annual output of 3,000 tonnes of monocrystalline silicon ingots and 122 million pieces of monocrystalline silicon wafer, each with a capacity of 600 MW, the company said. The fab is expected to be completed by Q2 of next year.

Alongside the upstream monocrystalline silicon ingot and wafer investment projects, Solargiga will also continue to invest in its downstream PV module capacity. It also expects that during Q1 and Q2 of 2018, its monocrystalline silicon and ingot production capacity will reach 1.8 GW, while solar cell production will be maintained at 350 MW and PV module capacity could rise above 2 GW.

Solargiga’s investment follows a tumultuous period for the sector, where existing monocrystalline silicon ingot and wafer capacity has been unable to meet demand, based on the continuous increase in the market share of monocrystalline silicon products in the PV industry.

Solargiga’s expansion comes at a time when other companies such as Panasonic have halted production of wafers and ingots for commercial purposes. Panasonic’s reasoning was to free up business resources that can be steered towards cell production, for example, illustrating how the market forces are currently shaping commercial decisions.

With this is mind, Solargiga selected Yunnan Qujing as the location for its investments because, firstly, local electricity costs at the new plant are 50% lower than at their major production base. Furthermore, the raw material required for the project can be locally supplied, which also reduces costs. Moreover, they have received strong support from local government, which has provided financial support for land, warehouses and factory facilities.

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