Tongwei tops polysilicon ranks as organization table established for shakeup in 2022

• The solar polysilicon industry is experiencing an altering of the guard, and all four of the leading suppliers will certainly be Chinese next year, research firm Bernreuter Research has predicted.

Posting its position of the leading 10 polysilicon producers this week, Bernreuter Research has placed Tongwei on top of its rankings in 2020, ousting German provider Wacker Chemie for the very first time.

Tongwei's capability is expected to reach nearly 200,000 MT by the end of this year before rising to 300,000 MT in 2023, proceeding a price of development which has actually seen it rise from nine setting in 2016 to the top of Bernreuter's ranking last year.

Daqo New Energy has on the other hand thought the third-place area from South Korea's OCI, which tumbled down the rankings after shuttering its solar-grade polysilicon procedures in South Korea last year.

While global need for solar-grade polysilicon is rising, Bernretuer has actually kept in mind Wacker's commitment to electronic-grade polysilicon and also its intent to expand its market share in this sector rather than the much more affordable solar polysilicon area. Consequently, Wacker is expected to fall better down its league table to 5th position next year. It will be overtaken by 3 various other Chinese essentials-- GCL-Poly, Daqo and Xinte Energy, with China's share of the solar-grade polysilicon market set to near 90% in the coming years.

"The increase of China-based gamers in our position is excellent for the raising prominence of the Chinese polysilicon industry," Johannes Bernreuter, head of Bernreuter Research, stated.

The report also suggests the need for markets beyond China to develop new production facilities-- particularly to accommodate for ingot as well as wafering needs-- if they are to compete with Chinese supply in the long-term.

"If [Western] nations do not intend to come to be nearly totally based on solar products from China for the shift to renewable energy, they have to implement a reliable and long past due commercial policy for a non-Chinese solar supply chain," Bernreuter stated, keeping in mind low-cost renewable hydropower availability in the United States, Canada, Norway and Malaysia as being possible locations.

The plausibility of developing end-to-end production supply chains for solar items in Europe has actually long been debated yet has actually been restored amidst initiatives in Europe to establish a "solar production renaissance". These discussions form part of a bigger economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, yet likewise come from worries over the affirmed use forced labour in supply chains in Xinjiang, accusations which polysilicon suppliers in the area strenuously deny.

Previously this week, the market heard that up to EUR7 billion (US$ 8.5 billion) of capital investment could be called for to scale up Europe's module production supply chain in order to be around the world competitive.

At the same time, polysilicon rates volatility has proceeded, with this week's place rates for monocrystalline poly increasing once again to approximately RMB164/kg (US$ 25.4/ kg).