OCI buys 65% stake in Vietnam 2.7-GW wafer plant project

• South Korea’s OCI Holdings acquired a 65% stake in a near-complete 2.7-GW solar wafer plant in Vietnam, entering upstream manufacturing with regional scale.

OCI Holdings is moving upstream. The South Korean green-energy and chemicals group has agreed to acquire a 65% stake in a nearly completed 2.7-GW solar wafer factory in Vietnam, signaling a strategic push into a critical segment of the photovoltaic supply chain. The deal gives OCI immediate capacity at meaningful scale, proximity to Southeast Asian customers, and a platform to integrate with cell and module partners across the region.

Why wafers, and why now? Global module prices remain under pressure, but traceability requirements and regional diversification are reshaping procurement. Owning wafer capacity allows OCI to influence quality, specifications, and logistics, while offering bankable provenance to buyers navigating local-content rules and due-diligence demands. Vietnam’s manufacturing base provides labor depth, established export routes, and improving power infrastructure—advantages for a precision process that prizes yield and uptime.

The plant is reportedly near completion, suggesting core tools—ingot pullers, wire saws, texturing and cleaning lines, metrology—are installed or arrived. The next checkpoints will be pilot runs to hit defect rates and thickness targets, qualification with downstream cell makers, and ramp plans that balance throughput with yield protection. Power quality and stability are pivotal; expect backup systems and tight coordination with the local utility to keep sensitive lines within spec.

Commercially, OCI can pursue multiple paths: tolling for established brands, supply into affiliated cell partners, or direct wafer sales under multi-year contracts that lock volume and pricing bands. As TOPCon and heterojunction cells gain share, wafer specs—oxygen content, resistivity, surface roughness—become differentiators, and consistent quality can command premiums even in a price-competitive environment.

Strategically, the move diversifies OCI’s earnings beyond chemicals and downstream services, while hedging against supply shocks. For buyers, the entry of a well-capitalized Korean player into Vietnam’s wafer scene adds a traceable, potentially high-reliability option at regional scale.

If ramped on schedule, the 2.7-GW facility will ship wafers into a market still expanding installations despite cyclical pricing. The broader signal: upstream control is back in vogue as leaders rebuild resilient, regionalized supply chains for the next decade of solar growth.