Solar cell manufacturer Suntech acquires minority stake in Asia Silicon for $8.1m

18 February 2009

Photovoltaic cell manufacturer Suntech Power Holdings has acquired a minority stake in an independent polysilicon producer Asia Silicon from an existing shareholder for $8.1m.

‘We are very pleased to cement our relationship with Asia Silicon,’ said Dr Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s Chairman and CEO. ‘Asia Silicon has all the makings of a world class polysilicon producer due to the utilization of the most advanced production equipment, their expert technical team and industry leading cost structure. By combining Asia Silicon’s low-cost polysilicon with Suntech’s high conversion efficiency technology, we believe that we will be able to achieve grid parity in many parts of the world within the next two or three years.’

Suntech previously entered into an agreement to purchase high purity polysilicon from Asia Silicon with a total value of up to $1.5bn over a seven-year period. The price of the silicon decreases to below $40 per kilogram during the term of the contract.

Dr Tihu Wang, Asia Silicon’s CEO, said, ‘We are very excited to have successfully initiated high purity polysilicon production and now welcome the strengthening of our partnership with Suntech. The rapid construction and startup of our close-loop facility is testament to the dedication and expertise of our team of scientists, engineers and operations professionals. Building on our industry leading cost structure and world-class technology, we will continue to grow our polysilicon business with the continuing support of the local government, the Chinese financial community and Suntech, and we are well positioned to become a leading player in the polysilicon industry.’

Asia Silicon is in the ramp-up stage of a state-of-the-art polysilicon plant in Qinghai, China. Asia Silicon initiated production of high purity polysilicon at the end of 2008 and targets to reach 2,000 metric tons of annual production capacity by mid-2009.

Up to 80 per cent of the electricity used at the facility will be supplied from renewable energy hydropower sources with a pricing structure that is among the lowest industrial electricity rates in China.

Suntech designs, develops, manufactures, and markets solar products for electric power applications in the residential, commercial, industrial, and public utility sectors.

Copyright © 2009 newnet

Tags: photovoltaic, solar

This story was published on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 10:12 am and is filed under Asia, North America, deals, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply