Daqo Inks Major Solar Polysilicon Supply Deal With Longi

Image source: Daqo New Energy

China’s Daqo New Energy Corp. has announced the signing of an agreement with Longi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd that will see Daqo supplying  39,600 tonnes of ultra-high-quality, monocrystalline-grade polysilicon to the company.

Polysilicon is a high purity, polycrystalline form of silicon that is used as a raw material in the production of both polycrystalline and monocrystalline solar cells.

The polysilicon supply to Longi will start this month and run through to the end of 2020.

“This supply agreement with Daqo New Energy will allow us to expand production capacity of our high-efficiency mono-crystalline solar products to meet the growing demand from our downstream customers,” said Baoshen Zhong, Chairman of Longi.

Longi produces monocrystalline solar ingots and wafers, mono cells and solar panels. Last year the company shipped 4.7GW of modules globally to countries including Australia. Founded in 2000, the company is a relatively new player in Australia’s solar scene – SQ’s Ronald provided background on Longi in October last year.

All that Daqo polysilicon will be put to good use. With regard to wafers, Longi announced in February it aimed to increase its 15GW production capacity at the end of last year to 28GW by the end of 2018, 36GW by the end of 2019 and to 45GW by the end of 2020. Last year, Longi shipped 2.2 billion pieces of monocrystalline wafer.

The  polysilicon deal will provide a nice boost for Daqo, which was already going gangbusters in its polysilicon business.

” Chinese solar manufacturers rely heavily on foreign imports of polysilicon,” said Longgen Zhang, CEO of Daqo New Energy. ” Daqo is one of the very few Chinese polysilicon producers who can produce ultra-high-quality polysilicon domestically.”

Daqo had a huge year in 2017, reaching polysilicon production volume of 20,200 metric tons (MT), an increase of 54.6% from 13,068 MT in 2016. 2017 was the strongest year in the company’s history.

This year, Daqo had expected to produce approximately 22,000 to 23,000 MT of polysilicon, but that figure was forecast prior to the Longi deal being announced and whether it was factored in isn’t clear.

As well as being a producer of polysilicon and wafers, Daqo also manufactures modules. Daqo solar panels have been available in Australia for some years and have generally received positive reviews from Australian households that have had the modules installed.