(JW Insights) Feb 9 -- Leading Chinese silicon producer Tongwei Group (通威集团) said it will invest RMB6 billion ($884 million) to build a high-purity polysilicon plant, despite an easing in China’s tight solar silicon supply situation, Yicai Global reported on February 8.

The plant will be built in Leshan, southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons of the raw material used for solar cells, Chengdu-based Tongwei said on February 7. Construction is scheduled to start by the end of June and finish in 2024.

The plant will use some facilities at Tongwei’s Leshan production base to reduce the cost compared with other polysilicon plants of the same size, the company said. The new project will consolidate Tongwei’s leading position in the high-purity crystalline silicon market.

The company’s three large-scale solar polysilicon production bases -- in Leshan, Baotou in northern China, and Baoshan in the southwest -- have had their capacities steadily increased in recent years due to strong product demand. Its annual production output of high-purity crystalline silicon is likely to grow to between 800,000 tons and 1 million tons by 2026.

Tongwei’s sales jumped along with market prices of silicon materials last year. Its net profit likely climbed by 207 percent to 231 percent to between RMB25.2 billion and RMB27.2 billion ($3.7 billion and $4 billion) in 2022 from a year earlier, said Yicai Global.

(Yuan XY)