(Yicai) Aug. 23 -- Hunan Huamin Holdings, a newcomer to China’s photovoltaic industry, has secured an order for solar wafers worth about CNY4.4 billion (USD611.6 million), after also landing a CNY5.5 billion deal in the past week.

Huamin's subsidiary in Yunnan province will supply about 1.4 billion solar wafers to Chinese PV panel maker Das Solar between next month and August 2026, its Changsha-based parent firm announced late yesterday, citing a contract the two inked on the same day.

Each month's pricing will be negotiated in the prior month, Huamin pointed out. The deal is likely to be worth around CNY4.4 billion based on current market prices.

Its Anhui province-based unit received a CNY5.5 billion order on Aug. 16 to supply high-efficiency solar battery silicon wafers to Anhui Huasun Energy for three years from November.

The deals show market demand for new-type high-efficiency silicon wafers remains strong even though the domestic silicon wafer capacity risks oversupply in the short run. This has provided industry newcomers such as Huamin with a competitive advantage.

In a separate announcement yesterday, Huamin also said that its Yunnan province-based unit and Zhejiang Pengzhan New Energy Technology have terminated a supply contract for silicon wafers penned last December to free up capacity and fulfill the unit's new order from Das Solar. 

Huamin also cited a pricing dispute with Pengzhan New Energy since the latter is unwilling to pay premiums for N-type high-efficiency silicon wafers supplied by its subsidiary, which had agreed that this year's wafers procurement would be 50 million pieces.

Established in 2018, Das Solar focuses on the supply of N-type high-efficiency batteries and modules and develops power stations. It specializes in the research, development, production, and sales of high-efficiency solar cells, panels, and system applications, according to its website.

The growth potential for the new technology is huge, as high-efficiency solar cells, including heterojunction cells, accounted for less than 3 percent of China's total PV cell production capacity in 2021, data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association showed. But that is likely to reach 40 percent by 2025 and more than 75 percent by 2030, it predicted.

Shares of Huamin [SHE: 300345] ended 0.4 percent down at CNY9.56 (USD1.31) today. They jumped by as much as 2 percent in the morning trading session. The broader Shenzhen market came off 2.1 percent.

Editor: Martin Kadiev