Flood stops Tongwei – Daqo and GCL heading back to normal

Tongwei’s subsidiary Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon has temporarily stopped production at its plant in the Wutongqiao district of Leshan, Sichuan province due to a once-in-a-century flood of the Qingyi river.

After the local authorities issued the highest flood alert on August 18 at 5 am local time, the factory was safely shut down, Chinese media reported. “We received a notice this morning from local emergency management bureau to stop production immediately,” a Tongwei spokesman said to Reuters.

Yongxiang Polysilicon has an annual production capacity of 20,000 metric tons (MT). According to Tongwei, its second polysilicon plant in Leshan, whose capacity is approx. 36,000 MT, is still running at full steam.

It is expected that the closed 20,000 MT plant will resume production within one or two weeks, depending on the extent of the flooding and potential damage. The interruption comes on top of supply disruptions after recent accidents at the polysilicon plants of Daqo New Energy and GCL-Poly Energy in July.

Daqo is planning to restart a suspended 6,000 MT unit on August 25, CEO Longgen Zhang said at the presentation of his company’s second-quarter results on August 18. After production volumes of 19,777 MT in the first and 18,097 MT in the second quarter, Daqo expects an output of 17,500 MT to 18,000 MT in the third quarter. The company’s guidance of 73,000 to 75,000 MT for the full year remains unchanged.

In contrast, the 48,000 MT plant of GCL in Xinjiang has completely been shut down after severe explosions. Nonetheless, the company’s chairman Gongshan Zhu tried to spread optimism in an interview with the Chinese news outlet Energy1. “The GCL Xinjiang plant will soon restore part of the capacity,” Zhu said; however, he did not provide further details.