Longji Central Snapped Up 40 Billion Silicon Materials "In Short Of Strategic Materials" And The Photovoltaic Industry Kept Gathering Together

In 2021, the "rush purchase" of photovoltaic materials will continue to be staged. This time, the former competitor came to the signing table.

Following the price rise of photovoltaic materials, one of the "Gemini" photovoltaic glass field appeared large orders in January, polysilicon material field recently reappeared major contracts. On the evening of February 2, poly GCL energy, a leading polysilicon material company, announced that it had signed a silicon material supply agreement with Longji and Zhonghuan. Jiangsu Zhongneng silicon will sell no less than 91400 tons and 350000 tons of polysilicon materials to the two companies respectively.

Among them, the supply cycle with Longji is from March 2021 to December 2023, and the supply cycle with Zhonghuan is from January 2022 to December 2026. According to the current market price, the estimated total amount of the two contracts is close to 40 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that according to the understanding of 21st century economic reporter, poly GCL energy will increase the supply of granular silicon in the future supply.

Under the influence of carbon neutral target and the "fourteenth five year plan", the prosperity of domestic new energy industry continues to rise, and the market demand is expected to increase significantly. However, in the photovoltaic material sector, due to the limited production capacity and supply, the supply and demand relationship of polycrystalline silicon materials, photovoltaic glass and other material-based products is tight, and the prices go up. In 2020, leading photovoltaic enterprises have increased their efforts to purchase photovoltaic materials, with 10 billion orders and contracts appearing frequently. According to the statistics of 21st century economic report, only at the A-share level, the total amount of photovoltaic material purchase orders announced last year reached 109.484 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that the purchase contract amount of polysilicon materials accounts for 48.16%.

Since this year, the price of photovoltaic glass has remained high, and the price of polysilicon material has risen again. For downstream enterprises, ensuring the supply of "strategic materials" through the way of locking orders and not locking prices has already related to the competition for PV market share this year and even in the next few years.

40 billion large single involving supply of granular silicon

This is the largest amount of polysilicon material supply order obtained by poly GCL energy in recent years. Affected by the news, the company's share price rose by more than 16% in the morning trading on February 3, hitting a record high in the session.

Located in Jiangsu Zhongneng silicon industry, poly GCL energy used to be the world's largest producer of polysilicon materials. However, Tongwei, the largest competitor, is "aggressive". By the end of 2020, the annual production capacity of the latter's polysilicon will reach 90000 tons, which will surpass poly GCL energy. In the past year, the domestic market of polysilicon materials was booming, and the "first fire" that led to the price rise of silicon materials was ignited by poly GCL energy.

In July 2020, poly GCL energy's Xinjiang polysilicon plant was shut down due to an accident, which affected the supply of about 45000 tons of silicon materials at that time. Subsequently, in August, the polysilicon plant of Sichuan Yongxiang Co., Ltd. of Tongwei Co., Ltd. was forced to cut off power and stop production due to floods. Many factors interweave, polysilicon material supply and demand relationship reverse, price rise.

However, in the third and fourth quarters of the polysilicon material market is hot, poly GCL energy did not enjoy the dividend in time because of the main factory shutdown maintenance. However, it is worth noting that during this period of time, due to the R & D of granular silicon (FBR) technology, the company triggered a discussion on the technical path of polysilicon link in the industry, and "detonated" the stock price.

Since the fourth quarter of 2020, the stock price of poly GCL energy has increased by more than 800%, and its main driving factor is granular silicon. On September 8, 2020, the 54000 ton polysilicon material project of Jiangsu Zhongneng Silicon Industry Co., Ltd. officially started construction, with a total investment of 4.7 billion yuan, using granular silicon technology.

In fact, there are still some controversies in the market for this technology. According to bocom international analysis, the key indicators of FBR granular silicon project process such as product cost and process stability are still unclear, and the cost problem even determines whether the technology can completely replace Siemens method. "At present, the granular silicon technology has not been put into production in large quantities, and the cost still needs to wait until the capacity is released in large quantities." An analyst who did not want to be named told 21st century business reporter that granular silicon technology still needs time to prove.

However, poly GCL energy is obviously willing to fight for it. On February 3 this year, poly GCL Energy announced that the annual effective capacity of Jiangsu Zhongneng silicon industry, which is the main body of granular silicon R & D and manufacturing, has increased from 6000 tons to 10000 tons, officially entering the 10000 ton capacity scale.

In the 40 billion large order silicon material supply agreement, poly GCL Energy said it would increase the supply of granular silicon products. 21st century economic reporter noted that at the launch ceremony of the above-mentioned capacity improvement, representatives from Zhonghuan, Jingao technology and Hongyuan new materials all affirmed the high-quality certification results of granular silicon products as customers.

The battle of the leader of the lower reaches

The photovoltaic industry in 2021 may continue to be "Crazy".

According to the statistics of the national energy administration, in 2020, China's newly added photovoltaic power generation capacity will be 48.20gw. According to the forecast of China Photovoltaic Industry Association, the newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity in China may be 55gw to 65gw this year.

Facing the huge market demand, the leading photovoltaic enterprises will also enter a new round of market share war. This year, the downstream module market will usher in the mass production of large-scale products, which directly leads to the leading enterprises to continue to spare no effort to "rush" upstream photovoltaic materials.

In the past year, polysilicon and photovoltaic glass, two major materials in the photovoltaic industry, have become the two leading actors in the price rise of the industry chain. Among them, the price of silicon material stabilized at the end of last year and fell slightly, but still at a high level. With the Lunar New Year approaching, downstream enterprises stock up sentiment gradually, supply and demand relationship of polysilicon material is tight again, and the price rises.

Wang Bohua, vice president and Secretary General of China Photovoltaic Industry Association, said that the tight supply and demand of the industrial chain has become one of the challenges facing the photovoltaic industry. For example, silicon and glass are still in short supply, and major enterprises have begun to sign long orders to ensure product supply.

Behind the tense supply-demand relationship of polycrystalline silicon materials, the market competition from the downstream can not be ignored.

The 10 billion module production base project announced by the photovoltaic industry in 2020 will be built and put into operation this year. As a result, the "war of words" of large-scale components set off in the past year will directly evolve into fierce competition for market share in the downstream market this year. 21st century economic reporter learned that the "182 size" component camp led by Longji shares and the "210 size" component camp led by Trina Solar will focus on large-scale component products this year. Although the industry believes that this year's component market is still dominated by "166 size" components, the delivery speed of larger size components may exceed market expectations. According to the forecast of China's photovoltaic industry, the market share of 160mm-166mm silicon wafers will be reduced to 45% this year.

"Large size and high-power products will enter the stage of rapid volume expansion, and the proportion of large-size silicon wafers such as 210 and 182 will accelerate to 50%." Wang Bohua believes that the ability to control the supply chain will become the key to the success of enterprises in competition.

There is no eternal "enemy"

When poly GCL Energy announced the signing of a large order of polysilicon material supply with Longji, the industry called this cooperation "historic hand in hand".

"In the past, the dispute between Shan and duo was" red with bayonets ", and now we have signed a large single, loving each other." Some industry personage commented on the reporter of the 21st century economic report that there is no eternal "enemy" in the photovoltaic industry. In fact, Longji shares and poly GCL energy is not the first cooperation in polysilicon materials. Insiders of poly GCL energy confirmed to the 21st century economic reporter that the two sides had reached an agreement on the supply of polysilicon materials, but the supply of granular silicon was the first time. Longji shares also responded that the company has been trying to use granular silicon products.

Wang Yingge, general manager of Longji Co., Ltd., said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that the cooperation of polysilicon materials between the two sides involves the supply of granular materials, and is optimistic about the economy and application prospects of granular materials.

"Fluidized bed granular material is not a new thing. It was used in monocrystalline pulling more than ten years ago. The core problem is to adapt to the technical requirements of high-quality silicon wafers, and we are happy to see the rapid improvement of the quality of granular materials." Wang Yingge said.

Looking back on the evolution of the technical route of photovoltaic industry in recent years, the dispute between single crystal and polycrystalline is an unavoidable event. In the past few years, the monocrystalline silicon chip camp led by Longji shares and the polysilicon chip camp led by poly GCL Energy Co., Ltd. have been fighting each other fiercely in the past few years. With the development of single crystal technology, the cost of single-crystal products is dropping rapidly, and the price performance ratio of single-crystal products is outstanding, and the era of polycrystalline is replaced. However, at the time of market competition, the two leading enterprises have brought the domestic photovoltaic industry into the era of giant alliance. In 2017, GCL group and China Central Co., Ltd. made the aforementioned strategic cooperation and formed an alliance; in 2019, Longji and Tongwei reached a cooperation intention, deeply binding.

However, the era of giant alliance is the era of chaos.

In 2020, the single polycrystalline competition in the photovoltaic industry has come to an end, and the new focus is on the size. "182 size" and "210 size" debate in the past year has brought an end to the era of "GCL + central", "Longji + Tongwei": Tongwei shares stood opposite to Longji and embraced 210 size.

In fact, whether it is the "182 size" camp or the "210 size" camp, the core factor of whether their products can be mass produced and seize market share is the construction of upstream and downstream supply chain. Therefore, in the construction of the supply chain, a new alliance system will be formed. "The purpose of leading enterprises' strong cooperation is to form complementary advantages, especially when the downstream component enterprises build a vertical integration mode, their own vacant links in the industrial chain can only seek cooperation with other enterprises." The aforementioned analysts told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

It is worth noting that in the process of building the vertical integration mode, the leading enterprises will indeed have interest competition. For example, in the battery sector, Longji shares and Tongwei shares have gone from cooperation in the past to the level of competition.

On January 19 this year, Longji announced that it would invest 8 billion yuan to build a 15gw single crystal battery project in Xixian new area of Shaanxi Province. This is the company's announcement last year to invest in Ningxia Leye 3gw single crystal battery project, another increase. This means that the complementary relationship between Longji and Tongwei in the industrial chain was weakened when Longji promoted the integration strategy of "silicon chip battery module".