Within two weeks of signing a 72,000-ton supply deal with Tongwei, solar manufacturer Trina Solar has cornered another 30,000-ton slice of the global polysilicon market. It has signed a deal to buy 30,000-37,600 tons of mono-grade polysilicon from Daqo New Energy, with the contract running until December 2023. That is also the planned end date for the 72,000-ton arrangement signed with Tongwei.
Trina and Daqo have agreed to negotiate actual prices on a monthly basis according to market conditions. “We are pleased to enter into a long-term partnership with Daqo New Energy. This will help us better execute our strategy, which is to provide advanced solar PV products and solutions with higher efficiency so as to address fast growing demand in solar PV market, drive grid parity and benefit society through green energy,” said Jifan Gao, Chairman of Trina Solar.
Trina’s $314 million tie-up with Tongwei included a minority stake in a new, 40,000-ton crystalline polysilicon fab to produce solar ingots, wafers and cells. That deal was announced just a day after Trina announced a RMB2.1 billion ($319 million) contract to acquire 85 million m2 of photovoltaic glass from Changzhou Almaden in a deal which will run from January until December 2023. The PV glass order was announced just as the world’s biggest solar manufacturers started remarking upon a shortage of the material.
Earlier this month, Trina Solar also announced it had ordered more than 1.2 billion 210mm monocrystal silicon wafers from Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co for delivery between January 2021 and December 2021. That contract is worth about $994.6 million.
REGlobal’s Views: Trina Solar is definitely on an expansion spree while ensuring that it meets planned production output. Solar power industry in China has been facing short-term supply issues, especially pertaining to glass and polysilicon.