Daqo indicates high-purity, mono-grade polysilicon remains tight

Daqo New Energy, a leading Chinese producer of high-quality polysilicon, has announced that most of its 2018 production capacity of approx. 21,000 metric tons is already under contract. “I’m pleased to see that our polysilicon order book for 2018 is 90.2% filled just one month into the year,” Daqo’s new CEO Longgen Zhang said on February 5.

Zhang’s predecessor Gongda Yao announced at the presentation of the company’s third quarter results last November that Daqo would supply at least 50% of its polysilicon output for monocrystalline wafers in 2018, up from 30% to 40% in the third quarter of 2017.

The rapid sale of Daqo’s production volumes indicates that high-purity polysilicon for monocrystalline wafers will remain tight in 2018. Chinese sources say that the production capacity for monocrystalline wafers in China will rise from approx. 39 GW at the end of 2017 to 65 GW at the end of 2018.

Longi and Zhonghuan Semiconductor alone are planning to reach 28 GW and 23 GW, respectively. Both are currently holding up the spot price for high-purity polysilicon by building up significant inventories.