Tongwei Co., Ltd. increases investment in new energy and wins at cost to usher in the era of "affordable Internet access"

Anonymous

In the golden autumn of September, the sky is high and the clouds are light. In the Metal Deep Processing Park in Kundulun District, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, rows of factory buildings are built... This is a corner of the Tongwei High Purity Crystalline Silicon Green Industrial Park in Inner Mongolia.

Inner Mongolia Tongwei was established in August 2017. It is a subsidiary invested and established by Yongxiang Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of Tongwei) in Baotou. As Tongwei's first high-purity crystalline silicon company out of Sichuan, Inner Mongolia Tongwei has demonstrated its "Tongwei speed."

On September 18, Yuan Zhonghua, deputy general manager of Yongxiang Co., Ltd. and general manager of Inner Mongolia Tongwei High Purity Crystalline Silicon, said that currently, Inner Mongolia Tongwei’s production capacity is 30,000 tons. After the completion of the second phase of the 45,000 tons project, The production capacity will reach 75,000 tons.

Ranking among the top three in terms of performance

"Origined from aquatic products and established in photovoltaics", after 38 years of development, Tongwei Group has now formed a dual-main business of "agriculture + new energy" industry structure.

In recent years, Tongwei Co., Ltd. (600438.SH), a subsidiary of Tongwei Group, has maintained a steady development trend. Among nearly 20 photovoltaic A-share companies, Tongwei's performance continues to rank among the top three in the industry.

From 2017 to 2019, Tongwei’s operating income was 26.089 billion yuan, 27.535 billion yuan and 37.555 billion yuan respectively, and its net profits were 2.041 billion yuan, 2.031 billion yuan and 2.682 billion yuan respectively.

It is worth mentioning that in July 2020, Tongwei Co., Ltd. became the second photovoltaic company with a market value of over 100 billion after Longi Co., Ltd.

In the first half of 2020, during the special period and the impact of falling photovoltaic product prices, Tongwei still achieved revenue of 18.74 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.21%.

In addition, in the first half of the year, Tongwei Co., Ltd. continued to produce high-purity crystalline silicon at full capacity, with a capacity utilization rate of 116%, single crystal material accounted for 90.86%, and an average production cost of 39,500 yuan/ton, of which new production capacity The average production cost is 36,500 yuan/ton. Achieved sales of 45,000 tons of high-purity crystalline silicon, a year-on-year increase of 97.04%. While the average prices of monocrystalline materials and polycrystalline materials dropped by 14.4% and 41.2% year-on-year respectively, the average gross profit margin of high-purity crystalline silicon products reached 27.70%, maintaining a good competitiveness.

Entering the second half of this year, the photovoltaic market demand has recovered rapidly due to the impact of domestic photovoltaic bidding for installation and overseas recovery. At the same time, due to the impact of polysilicon production safety accidents and logistics and other factors in Xinjiang, polysilicon prices have risen rapidly.

Oriental Securities research report pointed out that Tongwei Co., Ltd.’s silicon material and battery sectors have overcome difficult times and are expected to see both volume and profit rise in the second half of the year.

Yuan Zhonghua also said that supply and demand determine the market price, and currently the overall photovoltaic market is in short supply of polysilicon.

Scale and cost win

At present, Tongwei has grown into a leading company in the field of high-purity crystalline silicon and batteries. On the basis of maintaining technological leadership, it has grown in scale and cost in recent years. The cost performance advantage is obvious.

Data from the Silicon Industry Branch of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (2019) show that the polysilicon field has formed a competitive landscape in which large companies such as Tongwei Co., Ltd. dominate the market. The effective production capacity of these companies is 70,000 tons/ ~80,000 tons/year, accounting for 80% of production capacity.

However, since 2020, Tongwei Co., Ltd. has continued to expand and launched multiple production expansion plans: In February 2020, Tongwei Co., Ltd. released a high-purity crystalline silicon production expansion plan from 2021 to 2023. , expanding the annual production capacity of 80,000 tons to 115,000 to 150,000 tons, 150,000 to 220,000 tons, and 220,000 to 290,000 tons respectively.

Yuan Zhonghua introduced that the current production capacity of Inner Mongolia Tongwei is 30,000 tons. The company for the second phase project is preparing for environmental impact assessment procedures, safety assessment procedures and related supporting facilities. After the second phase is put into operation, the company's production capacity will reach 75,000 tons. .

Not only that, Tongwei Co., Ltd.’s bases in Leshan, Sichuan and Baoshan, Yunnan are also expanding production at the same time.

In February this year, Tongwei Co., Ltd. announced that it planned to invest 20 billion yuan to build a high-efficiency solar cell and supporting project with an annual output of 30GW in Jintang, Chengdu.

In March, it announced two high-purity crystalline silicon projects totaling 7.5 billion yuan, namely the 35,000-ton Sichuan Leshan high-purity crystalline silicon phase II project and the 40,000-ton Yunnan Baoshan high-purity crystalline silicon project, which are planned to be completed and put into production in 2021.

Tongwei Co., Ltd.’s 2020 semi-annual report shows that its Meishan Phase I 7.5GW high-efficiency solar cell project has been put into production, which is compatible with the production of battery products of all sizes 21X and below, and is currently ramping up its production capacity. At the same time, Tongwei Co., Ltd. has launched the Meishan Phase II 7.5GW and Jintang Phase I 7.5GW high-efficiency solar cell projects, which are expected to be put into production in 2021, when their solar cell production capacity will exceed 40GW.

Yuan Zhonghua said that in the past few years, the industry structure has undergone important changes, and the industry is now increasingly concentrated on the leader. Some overseas companies have withdrawn from the market, and cost competitiveness is an important factor.

Tongwei Co., Ltd. stated that in the first half of 2020, on the one hand, it continued to promote refined management and achieved reduction through refined management measures such as "Star Production Line", "Internal Index Improvement Star" and "Rational Suggestions". cost efficiency and process improvement; on the other hand, the company grasps market trends, optimizes product structure, and gradually increases the proportion of large-size products. With the commissioning of the first phase of the Meishan project, the company's product line has been further improved, and has now achieved a competitive advantage in the market. Full coverage of all PERC battery mainstream 156, 158, 16X, 18X, 21X and other sizes. Through continuous cost reduction, efficiency improvement, quality improvement and further optimization of product structure, the non-silicon cost of Tongwei Solar Cells has been further reduced.

It is reported that the comprehensive cost of photovoltaic power generation projects currently under construction by Tongwei Co., Ltd. has dropped to less than 3.5 yuan/watt. Tongwei Co., Ltd. stated that with the further optimization of design solutions and technological innovation and progress, it will further promote the realization of cost reduction goals and embrace the broad development space in the era of affordable Internet access.