(Yicai Global) Dec. 27 -- Hongrun Construction Group’s stock jumped by the daily trading limit after the Chinese civil engineer announced a CNY1 billion (USD144 million) plan to start making solar cell modules. 

Hongrun Construction [SHE: 002062] closed up 10 percent at CNY5.63 (81 US cents) a share today, giving it a market capitalization of CNY6.2 billion (USD892.2 million).

The Shanghai-based company intends to produce 5 gigawatts of high-efficiency battery modules, such as heterojunction modules and tunnel oxide passivated contact modules, per year, it said yesterday, without revealing any further details.

Hongrun may set up a new wholly-owned company or take a majority stake in a joint venture with local government or other strategic partners to run the new plant, it said.

Investing in the project can expand Hongrun's business into photovoltaic modules, the company noted, adding that it will also create synergy with its existing new energy business, guaranteeing the firm’s mid- and long-term development. 

Hongrun's revenue from the PV power generation business was CNY56.7 million (USD8.2 million) in the first half of the year, accounting for just 1.4 percent of the total, its semiannual earnings results showed. Infrastructure construction and property development remained the main revenue streams at 69 percent and 29 percent each.

Editor: Futura Costaglione