In an interview, Zhu Gongshan said that the crystal silicon business of GCL will undergo an overall migration. How is this going?

Today's photovoltaic industry has officially ushered in the era of low profit, and all companies are trying their best to "reducing costs and increasing efficiency."

Recently, the domestic photovoltaic industry giant GCL Group has made a big move. Its chairman Zhu Gongshan said in an interview that the crystal silicon business of GCL will undergo an overall migration. How is this going?

Crystal silicon business collective migration

On April 17, the GCL Group and the Sichuan Municipal Government held a project signing ceremony. GCL Group intends to cooperate with Sichuan Municipal Government and Zhongping Guosheng Asset Management Co., Ltd. to jointly set up a special investment fund, build a Leshan silicon material industrial base, and quickly advance the relevant preliminary work of the first 60,000 tons of polysilicon project.

It is understood that the investment of the 60,000 tons of polysilicon project will reach 6 billion yuan, which will account for about 40% of the Group's 15GW capacity. The 60,000 tons of polysilicon project is only the beginning of GCL Group in Leshan, Sichuan, and all of their silicon industry will be transferred to Leshan.

Zhu Xiangshan, chairman of GCL Group, said in an interview that the group will transfer the entire silicon industry, including polysilicon production, to Leshan. Zhu Gongshan also said that the construction of Leshan is not the addition of new capacity, but the upgrading of production capacity after the elimination of old production capacity and the introduction of new technologies and new processes. The upgraded production line will have stronger cost control and competitiveness. Zhu Gongshan said with confidence that Leshan will become one of the most important material bases for China's PV unfunded parity online.

Custom Solar Panel from WSL Solar  
WSL Solar - a professional & quality manufacturer of custom solar panel and solution provider in China since 2006.
https://www.wsl-solar.com

It is worth mentioning that there is news that another photovoltaic giant, Jingke Energy, will also invest 15 billion yuan to build 25GW single crystal pulling rods, cutting square projects and related supporting facilities in Leshan. In addition, Sichuan local giant Tongwei shares also added an annual output of 50,000 tons of high-purity crystalline silicon project in Leshan. Why do these industry giants have a special liking for this land in Leshan? The author believes that the main reason is that the electricity price in the Leshan area is relatively lower.

After the "531" last year, the photovoltaic industry entered the era of low profit, and controlling production costs has become the primary problem of current PV companies. For large-scale production manufacturers, the electricity bill generated in the production process of each production line is not a small burden. In the second case, building a plant in a low-priced region will significantly reduce production costs.

On the one hand, the core crystalline silicon production line of GCL Group has reached the stage of upgrading; on the other hand, the migration to low electricity price areas is also the trend of the times. Combined with the technological advantages of GCL Group in the field of crystalline silicon for many years, the upgraded production line will help GCL to expand its market share.

Polycrystalline micro-GCL is facing challenges

For many years, the polycrystalline industrial chain has been the mainstream of the photovoltaic industry until the rise of single crystals four or five years ago. In 2018, the market share of single crystal products has approached 50%, and it is expected to continue to increase in 2019.

At the same time, the polycrystalline industry has lost ground and the price of products has fallen, and manufacturers have seen the phenomenon of “selling more and losing more”. Recently, the prices of polysilicon and polycrystalline silicon wafers have all reached new lows, and the price of polycrystalline silicon wafers has even fallen below 2 yuan/piece.

The dilemma of the polycrystalline industry is closely related to its cost control capability. If no change is made, the polysilicon industry will lose its market position for many years. As the leading company in the global polysilicon industry chain, GCL Group is naturally under pressure.

The 2018 financial report of GCL-Poly, the flagship listed company of GCL Group, shows that although polysilicon production and wafer sales continue to rank first in the world, the company still lost 693 million yuan in 2018, compared with a profit of 19.26 in the same period last year. 100 million yuan.

Everything shows that this giant company is facing serious challenges. In the face of challenges, GCL has given a positive response.

From the layout point of view, the major PV giants have maintained a striking agreement, that is, taking advantage of the industry adjustment period to expand, and occupy a larger market share than before.

GCL is no exception. In addition to the above-mentioned upgraded production capacity, GCL-Poly's 60,000-ton high-quality polysilicon project in Xinjiang has just been put into production, and there are more efficient project expansion plans in the future. What is clear is that in the polysilicon field they are best at, GCL has launched a comprehensive capacity upgrade and moved all production capacity to low-priced regions to strictly control costs.

At the same time, GCL-Poly's layout in the field of single crystals is not to be underestimated. The ingot casting single crystal technology that has been reserved for many years has already led the industry and is expected to bring competitive advantages to GCL in the future; its "Xin single crystal G3" wafer The products have been supplied in batches, and the production capacity is expected to reach 12GW by the end of 2019.