Tongwei

The nation’s only two poly manufacturers could both shutter factories in their homeland due to downward price pressure. OCI says it will maintain only 6,500 MT of its 52,000 MT annual production capacity in an operational state and Hanwha Chemical says it is ‘examining the situation’. Poly analyst Johannes Bernreuter has discussed the reasons for the crisis with pv magazine.

Construction of the $2.87 billion factory is scheduled to start in March and manufacturing activity should be launched in 2021.

German polysilicon producer Wacker Chemie AG has reduced its earnings expectations for 2019, citing low prices for polysilicon. The company blamed the polysilicon price slump on oversupply from competitors in China, which muted an expected price increase in the second half of 2019.

While lacking the swarming crowds of previous years, the 2019 SNEC in Shanghai remained a focal point of the global PV industry when it comes to industrial solar cell and module manufacturing and technology. Here are five hot technology takeaways from the pv magazine team on the show floor and conference sessions.

There was plenty of innovation on display at this year’s SNEC, which closed yesterday afternoon at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. The three-day exhibition ran from Tuesday to Thursday, was well attended and still ranks as the world’s largest solar energy trade show.

The two Chinese companies will acquire 30% shares in each other’s respective wafer and silicon businesses and plan to purchase at least 75% of each other’s future output, as part of a complex mutual investment arrangement announced ahead of the SNEC PV Power Expo 2019.

The thin-film manufacturer, developer and maker of the Humbrella, HanTile and HanWall made 78th position in a ranking of China’s Top 500 companies, an improvement on last year’s 91st place, to lead the six solar-linked businesses on the list.

Taiwan-based analyst firm, WisolPro says the global capacity for PERC cells is rapidly increasing, with the technology likely to replace polycrystalline cells. HJT, thin film, and n-type PERT technologies are also on the rise.

Many expansion plans are still firmly afoot in the Chinese solar PV manufacturing industry, if the information pv magazine gathered from some of the country’s leading manufacturers at last week’s Smarter E event, is anything to go by. Indeed, Tongwei , Longi, Sunport and BYD are all progressing at full speed with their capacity ramp ups.

Representations by big beasts of global PV win only a partial concession from the authorities in Beijing, with officials agreeing to honor FIT payments for any ground mount projects connected during the next three weeks.