Tongwei Group to Expand Polysilicon Production Capacity to 50,000 Tons in Five Years

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Tongwei Group Company Limited (Chengdu, Sichuan), a large-scale animal feed manufacturer in China, is planning to expand its polysilicon production capacity from 30,000 to 50,000 tons per year (T/yr) in the next three to five years, with a total investment of as much as $1.5 billion. This would make Tongwei Group a world-class clean-energy enterprise, according to Liu Hanyuan, the chairman of Tongwei Group, who spoke at Asia Solar 2011, which was held in Shanghai on May 5-7, 2011.

Via subsidiary Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon Company Limited (Leshan, Sichuan), Tongwei Group has been engaged in the downstream industrial chain, including polysilicon-casting ingot and wafer. The company currently only has an annual polysilicon production capacity of 4,000 tons, including the 1,000-ton-per-year Phase I, commissioned in September 2008, and the 3,000-ton-per-year Phase II, which is under final commissioning. The company is planning for the 18,000-ton-per-year Phase III production lines, of which 6,000 tons will begin operation by the middle of next year. The total polysilicon production capacity of Tongwei Group will reach 10,000 tons per year in 2012. While promoting the construction of production capacity silicon materials, the company will expand its downstream production gradually, and the overall investment will be about $1.5 billion.

China is currently the largest photovoltaic manufacturer in the world, but it still relies on imports for half of its polysilicon. "Provided that the market condition is allowable, we plan to put 12,000 tons per year of new production capacity into operation each year in 2012 and 2013, and finally expand out production capacity to 30,000 to 50,000 tons per year," Liu Hanyuan said.

Liu also disclosed that the production cost of Tongwei Group's polysilicon was about $20 to $30 per kilogram, which was close to the international level. The market price of polysilicon might stay at a high level this year. Despite that, the profit margin will be narrowed in the future, and the manufacturer's profit will be well-maintained following the expansion in production scale.

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