News from Shanghai Securities News www.cnstock.com (journalist Chen Qiyu) GCL-Poly, a leader of photovoltaic materials listed in Hong Kong, officially published its 2020 annual report and 2021 semi-annual report last night. In the first half of the year, the company achieved the dazzling performance and the net profit attributable to parent company of RMB 2,407,000,000.

According to the semi-annual report, within the report period, the company produced polycrystalline silicon of 48,444 tons (including polycrystalline silicon of 25,160 tons produced by Xinjiang GCL). It achieved the incomes of RMB 8,779,000,000, increasing by 22.3% compared with the same period of 2020, the gross margins of about RMB 3,599,000,000, increasing by 97.5% compared with the same period of 2020, and the net profit attributable to parent company of about RMB 2,407,000,000, with the basic earnings per share of approximately 9.9 cents.

In this regard, a staff member of Securities Business Center of GCL-Poly said that the demands on the photovoltaic products in the market increased significantly in the first half of the year, so the selling price rose again. “Plus the promotion of the new product of granular silicon, our performance has been significantly improved.”

It is also the first performance report published by the company after it announced the new strategic layout of “deeply focusing on the main business of silicon materials, focusing on the development of the granular silicon business” in March this year.

Granular silicon is a “black technology” product independently researched and developed by GCL-Poly for more than ten years. Compared with the rod silicon produced with the improved Siemens method, it consumes less energy in production, with the better product quality, and its production cost and carbon emissions are greatly reduced. In the context of emission peak and carbon neutrality, granular silicon will help the photovoltaic industry achieve the objectives of “low cost, low energy consumption, low emission”.

It is learnt that GCL (including Jiangsu Zhongneng and Xinjiang GCL) has produced more than 9,000 tons of polycrystalline silicon in a single month, ranking the first in the world.

An industry insider evaluated “It can be seen from the performance that the new strategic layout of GCL-Poly has been recognized by the market. At present, the price of silicon material is still in the rising channel, and plus the production of the new project of granular silicon, I believe that the company’s annual performance will be dazzling.”

According to the semi-annual report of GCL-Poly, the upstream material end of the photovoltaic industry is a typical manufacturing industry with high energy consumption, so in the context of carbon neutrality, “deep decarbonization of the supply end” has been a focus of technological reformation in the photovoltaic industry. With the characteristics of “low cost, low energy consumption, low emission”, granular silicon not only has the cost-effective advance in the ear of affordable Internet era but also better complies with the policy demands of reducing the carbon emissions compared with rod silicon: carbon emissions will be reduced by 448,000 tons when every 10,000 tons of granular silicon are produced, decreasing by 74% compared with the production with the improved Siemens method, and 166,400 tons of coal may be saved, which equals to planting 2,186,000 more trees per year.

In May this year, China Quality Certification Center also issued the first certificate of carbon footprints for granular silicon.

At present, granular silicon has been widely recognized in the market. This year, GCL-Poly has signed multiple long orders at the level of RMB ten billion, and nearly 600,000 tons of polycrystalline silicon products including granular silicon have been ordered.

On September 23, Shuangliang Eco-energy announced that the company had signed an agreement with Jiangsu Zhongneng Silicon Industry subordinate to GCL-Poly that during the period from September 2021 to December 2026, Shuangliang Eco-energy would purchase the raw materials of polycrystalline silicon materials (including block silicon and granular silicon) of 52,750 tons from Jiangsu Zhongneng Silicon Industry, with the expected purchase amount of about RMB 11,209,000,000.

In earlier time, GCL-Poly also signed the agreements with the companies such as Longi, Zhonghuan and JA, including the polycrystalline silicon of 350,000 tons signed with Zhonghuan, and the expected total purchase quantity of about 145,800 tons of JA.On one hand, the market demand is strong, and on the other hand, GCL-Poly is also actively expanding capacity synchronously.

According to the journalist’s combing, at present, GCL-Poly has planned to build three 100,000 ton-level silicon material projects in Xuzhou of Jiangsu, Leshan of Sichuan and Baotou of Inner Mongolia, to form a situation of “three pillars” in the east, west and north in China.

At the end of the third quarter of this year, the new construction of granular silicon production capacity of 20,000 tons is going to be completed, and it is expected that the granular silicon production capacity of 54,000 tons will be fully released. At the same time, Leshan Phase I Project is advancing rapidly, the relevant preparation and construction work of project in Baotou, Inner Mongolia has been comprehensively carried out. Through the synchronous advancing in such three places, the base for the 100,000-ton granular silicon production capacity of GCL-Poly is gradually being achieved.

At the same time, the company’s investment in research and development has been doubled. According to the semi-annual report of 2021, the company spent the research and development expenses of RMB 479,000,000 within the report period, increasing by 106.3% on year-on-year basis.