(Yicai Global) Feb. 8 -- Leading Chinese silicon producer Tongwei Group said it will invest CNY6 billion (USD884 million) to build a high-purity polysilicon plant, despite an easing in China’s tight solar silicon supply situation.

The plant will be built in Leshan, Sichuan province, with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons of the raw material used for solar cells, Chengdu-based Tongwei said late yesterday. Construction is scheduled to start by the end of June and finish next year.

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, it added, without giving any further details.

Tongwei’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. Tongwei’s annual production output of high-purity crystalline silicon is likely to grow to between 800,000 tons and 1 million tons by 2026, according to the firm.

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 CNY25.2 billion and CNY27.2 billion (USD3.7 billion and USD4 billion) in 2022 from a year earlier, the firm forecast last month.

Shares of Tongwei [SHA: 600438] ended little changed at CNY40.78 (USD6.04) each today, after rising 0.2 percent. 

Editor: Martin Kadiev