Xinte supplies 97,200 tons of polysilicon to JA Solar for 5 years

Integrated solar module producer JA Solar has secured the supply of 97,200 metric tons (MT) of polysilicon from Xinjiang-based manufacturer Xinte Energy for a period of more than five years. On September 15 JA Solar’s subsidiary Donghai JA Solar Technology signed a respective purchase contract with Xinte running from October 2020 through December 2025.

The contract duration of more than five years is longer than the usual two or three years Chinese manufacturers agreed upon until recently. It is obviously JA Solar’s reaction to the volatility of the spot price experienced after the explosion at GCL’s polysilicon plant in Xinjiang in mid-July.

The polysilicon purchase contract that wafer and module manufacturer Longi Green Energy Technology closed with Asia Silicon just a month ago also extends over a period of five years. In both cases, the purchase price will be negotiated on a monthly basis.

With module shipments of 10.26 GW, JA Solar was the world’s second-largest solar panel supplier in 2019. According to its annual report, the company had a production capacity of 11.5 GW for wafers and of 11 GW each for solar cells and panels at the end of 2019. JA Solar is planning to increase the capacity to more than 16 GW for panels and to about 13 GW each for wafers and cells by the end of 2020.

Xinte’s factory is located in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang region in northwestern China. The comapny already concluded two three-year polysilicon supply contracts with Longi and Jingyuntong for the delivery of 91,080 MT and 32,000 MT, respectively, from 2019 through 2021.

Update on September 16, 2020: On the evening of September 15, JA Solar announced it would invest CNY10.391 billion (US$1.532 billion) in the following new, monocrystalline production capacities:

• ingots: 21 GW (20 GW in Qujing, Yunnan province and 1 GW in Ningjin county, Hebei province);
• wafers: 25 GW (20 GW in Qujing and 5 GW in Ningjin county);
• solar cells: 9.5 GW (6 GW in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province and 3.5 GW in Vietnam);
• modules: 3.5 GW in Vietnam.