Late last week (22 September), Tongwei announced that it planned to sign an investment agreement with the management committee of Yancheng Economic Development Zone to cooperate on the development of a 25GW high-efficiency PV module manufacturing base in the zone.
Tongwei said the project is not expected to have a significant impact on the company’s 2022 operating revenue and net profit.
Representing an estimated investment in fixed assets of roughly RMB4 billion (US$560 million), the project is expected to begin construction within 24 months of acquiring the necessary land and required procedures for the Zone, which has become a key strategic site for the solar PV industry in recent years.
Following this announcement, Yancheng City has formed a comprehensive PV industry chain from the supply of upstream raw materials to the production of cells and modules. In addition, it is also home to production capacity for smart PV manufacturing equipment, inverters, aluminum frames, brackets, welding belts and other supporting links.
Yancheng City plans to achieve a production capacity of 150GW for cells and 100GW for modules during China’s 14th “Five-Year Plan” that runs from 2021-2025 and will see strong policy support from the Chinese state, which recently called on the country’s PV industry to “develop strategic alliances”.
Tongwei said that the proper expansion of the module link will support its advantages in the field of high-purity silicon and solar cells, forming a more competitive industrial structure as a result.
Since the acquisition of Tongwei Solar (Hefei) Co. in 2016, Tongwei has established some module production capacity and is currently in the running to secure the fifth module procurement round of Hong Kong energy company China Resources Power.
In addition, on September 6, Guangdong Electric Power Development Co. announced the candidates for the third batch of PV module procurement in 2022, with the first place going to Tongwei Hefei, with a bid price of RMB396 million (US$55 million) and an unit price of RMB1.981/W (US$0.28c/W).
Moreover, on September 20, Tongwei was the only winning candidate of the 44th batch of 2022 centralised bidding (the procurement of shingled modules for Sichuan Ganzi Zhengdu Photovoltaic Empirical and Experimental Base Project) was published by the State Power Investment Group Co. Tongwei won with a unit price of RMB1.97/W (US$0.28c/W).
At Tongwei’s performance report meeting in late August, Yi Xie, chairman of Tongwei, said the company’s module business planning was based on the requirement of the national double carbon goal and the strengthening trend of industrial integration, adding that the company will follow the trend and consider further experiments and planning in the module business.
Benefiting from high silicon prices, Tongwei has recorded very strong performance in the first half of the year. Its revenue and net profit both hit record highs and topped the list with a total revenue of RMB60.3 billion (US$8.43 billion), surpassing LONGi Green Energy for the first time.
