Chinese PV Industry Brief: Shuangliang signs billion-dollar wafer contract

New PV wafer manufacturer Shuangliang Eco-Energy announced Friday that a strategic long-term sales contract had been signed with major solar cell maker, Jiangsu Runergy, for the delivery of 1.3 billion wafer pieces between January 2022 and December 2024. The planned yearly purchases will be 200 million for 2022, 500 million for 2023, and 600 million for 2024. The price will be negotiated monthly. According to the latest wafer prices published by PV Infolink on September 29, the total contract value for this long-term agreement is around RMB 8.3 billion (USD$1.29 billion). Shuangliang used to focus its business on ingot furnace systems; however, it began manufacturing PV wafers in 2021. This September, the company announced two strategic purchasing contracts with Jiangsu Zhongneng and TBEA, respectively, to secure at least 135,000 MT of polysilicon supply over the next four years. Shuangliang is also constructing a 20 GW wafer production base in Inner Mongolia.

On Thursday, PV wafer producer Zhonghuan announced its Q3 financial forecast. The manufacturer said its revenue for the first three quarters of 2021 will reach RMB 28 billion to RMB 30 billion, YoY growing by 109% to 124%. The estimated net profit will be RMB 2.7 billion to RMB 2.8 billion, with a YoY growth of 219% to 231%. Zhonghuan said the growth is due to several reasons, including the successful marketing of its 210 mm sized PV modules, and technical improvements that helped to achieve thinner wafers, and thus, save on polysilicon costs. Its yield of 210 mm wafers also increased, while sales grew due to new capacity expansions.

UtmoLight Technology, a Wuxi-based perovskite start-up announced on Wednesday that the company has won a Pre-A round investment of RMB 220 million from several private equity funds. According to Utmolight, it has achieved respective efficiencies of 22.7% on 1cm² and 19.41% on 10cm² for its perovskite solar cells and modules.