(Yicai Global) Sept. 5 -- Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, a maker of smart manufacturing equipment listed on Shenzhen’s Nasdaq-like ChiNext board, closed 16 percent higher today after announcing a major new order for solar cell gear and production lines

Maxwell [SHE: 300751] ended the day at CNY521.90 (USD75.26) a share, bringing its gain so far this year to 30 percent.

The Suzhou-based firm signed a contract on Sept. 4 to supply Anhui Huasun Energy with 12 heterojunction solar cell production lines, with an annual output capacity of 7.2 gigawatts, Maxwell said late yesterday.

The deal is worth between 50 percent to 100 percent of Maxwell’s audited revenue last year, the firm said. It had revenue of CNY3.1 billion (USD450 million) in 2021.

Heterojunction is a new type of solar cell structure that brings higher conversion efficiency than conventional products. This new cell is gradually taking the lead in the industry, with the annual production capacity of such cells expected to exceed 50 GW globally by the end of this year and 100 GW by the end of next year.

No construction schedule was revealed, but the delivery time is expected to be long, Maxwell said.

This is not the first agreement between Maxwell and Huasun Energy. Data in the announcement showed that Huasun Energy ordered three identical production lines from Maxwell last September, with a combined annual capacity of 1.8 GW.

Maxwell also provided Huasun Energy with stand-alone gear and equipment revamping services during the past year, earning CNY16.4 million (USD2.36 million).

According to Huasun Energy’s webiste, it specializes in new heterojunction solar cells and modules, and has an annual production capacity of 2.7 GW, which the firm intends to increase to 20 GW in five years.

Editor: Peter Thomas