(Yicai Global) May 24 -- Shares in Jolywood Sunwatt surged as much as 8.6 percent today after the Chinese photovoltaic equipment maker announced it will build a solar cell factory with an annual capacity of 16 gigawatts.

Shares of Jolywood [SHE:300393] closed up 4.48 percent at CNY9.33 (USD1.45). Earlier in the day they had reached CNY9.70.

The CNY5.6 billion (USD871 million) factory, to be located in Taiyuan, northern Shanxi province, will be built in two stages, the Suzhou, eastern Jiangsu province-based firm said yesterday. The first phase, costing CNY3 billion, will take two years to construct and will have an annual output of 8 GW. The second phase should take another year to complete.

The investment will help shore up the company’s solar monocrystalline cell output. At present the firm is only manufacturing 5.1 GW of solar cells a year, with sales of 4.1 GW, according to company data. By contrast, Jolywood is a leading producer of solar backsheets, or the outermost layer of a solar module that protects the inner layers, and holds 30 percent of global market share.

The company needs to raise CNY3 billion for the project, which it will obtain through bank loans, equity financing and other means, it added.

Editor: Kim Taylor