Longi signs $540m wafer supply deal

Chinese monosilicon PV giant Longi Solar has signed a 29-month wafer supply deal with Shanghai-based Vina Cell Technology and Shanghai Yize New Energy Tech.

A statement issued by the wafer manufacturer said Longi will supply 1.31 billion pieces of mono wafer to the clients by the end of 2021 with Vina and Shanghai Yize together purchasing an average 436 million pieces annually from this year to 2021. Based on the current $0.410-0.415 per piece price for mono wafers (180µm) estimated by analysts PV InfoLink, the contract will be worth $537-544 million – around 17% of the manufacturer’s sales revenue for last year. Longi said the purchase price for the wafers would be set in monthly negotiations between the parties.

The order is the second big contract landed by Longi in the last year. In July 2018 the company announced a $600 million deal, signed with an unnamed US solar client, with Longi supplying a similar amount of product annually from 2019 to 2022.

One of the world’s largest mono manufacturers, Longi aims to have 36 GW of annual wafer production capacity this year, plus 16 GW of module output and 10 GW of cell production lines. Those figures are set to rise to 50 GW, 25 GW and 15 GW, respectively, next year.

Wafer client Vina Cell Technology manufactures PV cells and modules in Vietnam. Based in Shanghai, the business is owned by the general manager of Shanghai Yize. As owner of one of the largest PV manufacturing operations outside China, Vina Cell has a 4.5 GW annual module production capacity and 1.8 GW of cell production lines.