China-based solar-grade poly-Si wafer makers face a wave of cnsolidation as many of them have either gone bankrupt or seen financial difficulties.
Ningxia Ning Electric PV Material has declared bankruptcy; LDK Solar and Tianwei Sichuan Silicon Indsutry have been acquired by fellow makers, according to China-based media reports, citing these as examples of the poly-Si wafer sector's woes, which have stemmed from oversupply and fierce competition from China-based mon-Si wafer makers.
Many makers are adopting diamond wire cut (DWC), which can increase output from the same ingots by about 25% compared to slurry slicing.
Some makers have replaced G6 crystal-growing furnaces with G7 or G8 ones, each having higher ingot production capacity than a G6 furnace.
The poly-Si wafer sector has seen fast expansion in production capacity: JYT is expanding annual capacity by 3GWp; Tongwei by 3-4GWp; Rietech by 3GWp; CETC New Energy Technology by 2GWp; and Yichang CSG Polysilicon by 2GWp, which has resulted in oversupply, the reports said.
Many China-based solar-grade mono-Si wafers makers are also expanding production capacities. For example, the largest maker LONGi Green Energy Technology (formerly Xi'an LONGi Siliocn Materials) and the second-largest Zhonghuan Semiconductor will increase annual production capacities to 25GWp and 23GWp respectively in August 2018, while Jinko Solar Holdings and JA Solar Holdings will reach 5.5GWp and 3.5GWp respectively by then. The total annual capacity for solar-grade mono-Si wafers in China is expected to rise to 60GWp at the end of 2018.
Most of capacity expansion is located in the northwestern and southwestern regions where power cost is relatively low.
