(Yicai Global) June 23 -- China’s Tongwei has received a CNY38.5 billion (USD5.74 billion) order for polysilicon, the company’s second big supply deal for the key material used in solar wafers in the space of a week.

Sichuan province-based Tongwei inked the agreement with a unit of Yuze Semiconductor, it said late yesterday. From this year to 2026, the buyer will purchase at least 161,100 tons of polysilicon products at prices negotiated on a monthly basis.

According to recent prices published by the silicon industry division of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, the contract is worth CNY38.5 billion.

Shares of Tongwei [SHE: 600438] closed 1 percent higher today at CNY55.18 (USD8.23).

On June 17, the company said it had signed a four-year deal worth about CNY50.9 billion with IDG Capital-backed Gokin Solar for 216,100 tons of polysilicon. And in March, it won a CNY44.2 billion order from Chinese silicon wafer giant Longi Green Energy Technology.

Solar wafer maker Yuze Semiconductor has a production base in Chuxiong, Yunnan province. It announced a capacity expansion plan in February, when the company also signed contracts to build two new silicon wafer bases in the province.

Silicon prices have jumped over the first half of this year due to soaring global energy prices, despite more capacity coming on stream. Prices ranged from CNY263,000 to CNY270,000 (USD39,205 to USD40,249) a ton in the past week, versus CNY134,000 (USD19,979) last June and nearly CNY70,000 (USD10,437) at the start of 2021, according to CNIA silicon industry data published on June 15.

Thanks to the sharp rise in silicon material prices, Tongwei’s net profit skyrocketed 513 percent to CNY5.2 billion (USD770 million) in the first quarter of 2022 from a year earlier, versus a 128 percent gain last year.

Editor: Futura Costaglione