[Investment Times] GCL Technology: Breaking the Photovoltaic Price War with New-Quality Productivity and Building a Global Green Energy Benchmark
As the global energy transition enters a critical phase, China’s photovoltaic industry is undergoing a profound “value restructuring” — shifting from a cut-throat race for scale and price toward a new arena defined by technology, carbon efficiency, and operational excellence. In this transformation, GCL Technology Holdings Limited (03800.HK), with granular silicon as its core vehicle, has built a three-dimensional competitive moat spanning technology, cost, and low carbon performance through its silane-based fluidized bed reactor (FBR) technology. The company has not only been among the first in the industry to return to profitability, but is also helping propel China’s photovoltaic sector from “scale leadership” toward the export of technical and sustainability standards.
According to its 2025 interim report, third-quarter voluntary disclosures, and data from authoritative institutions, GCL Technology has reduced granular silicon cash costs to a low of RMB 24.16 per kilogram, lifted market share beyond 24.32%, and lowered the carbon footprint per kilogram of granular silicon to 14.441 kg CO₂e. These achievements make the company a representative case of how new-quality productive forces can empower the upgrading of traditional industries, while positioning Chinese photovoltaics with a decisive “green advantage” in global energy competition.
Technology Breakthrough and Cost Discipline: Granular Silicon Opens a Way Out of the Industry’s Price War
The core dilemma of the photovoltaic industry’s price war lies in cost competition under technological homogeneity. GCL Technology’s solution has been to redefine the efficiency equation of polysilicon manufacturing through granular silicon, using technological iteration to achieve a dual breakthrough in both cost and quality.
From a quality perspective, the company’s FBR process has formed a robust intellectual property moat. As disclosed in the 2025 interim report, by the second quarter, products with total metal impurities across five key elements at or below 0.5 ppbw accounted for a stable 95% of output. In June, the company introduced an even more stringent internal standard of ≤0.3 ppbw, with over 75% of products meeting this threshold in the first month. Under the demanding industry benchmark of ≤1 ppbw for total metal impurities across 18 elements, the proportion of compliant products surged from 55.8% in the first quarter of 2024 to 91.8% in the second quarter of 2025, continuously widening its purity advantage.
At the same time, granular silicon turbidity has been comprehensively reduced to below 100 NTU, with products at or below 70 NTU rising from 25% in September 2024 to 57.4%. This has significantly enhanced compatibility with downstream high-efficiency N-type cells, strengthening customer stickiness. In the first half of the year, shipments to the top five customers accounted for 71% of total deliveries, underscoring the successful conversion of technological superiority into market recognition.
On the cost front, GCL Technology has demonstrated formidable capabilities in lean operations. In the second quarter of 2025, average granular silicon cash production cost (excluding VAT) declined to RMB 25.31 per kilogram, down 6.5% quarter-on-quarter. In the third quarter, this figure was further optimized to RMB 24.16 per kilogram, including R&D expenses, maintaining the lowest level in the industry. Pricing performance has been equally emblematic: since the fourth quarter of 2024, VAT-inclusive selling prices of granular silicon have consistently exceeded cash costs. In July 2025, according to Infolink data, transaction prices for granular silicon surpassed those of traditional N-type dense chunk polysilicon for the first time, breaking a long-standing pricing monopoly and establishing a new benchmark of “technology-driven pricing” for the industry.
Profitability figures provide the clearest validation of these advantages. In the first half of 2025, against a backdrop of widespread gross losses across the sector, GCL Technology achieved EBITDA of RMB 380 million, a year-on-year surge of 325.8%, successfully holding the “no cash loss” line. In the third quarter, the company became one of the first in the industry to return to profitability, with photovoltaic materials business generating RMB 960 million in profit — a sharp V-shaped rebound from a loss of RMB 1.81 billion in the same period last year. Even after excluding RMB 640 million in non-recurring gains from the disposal of an associate, the core business delivered solid operating profits, with EBITDA reaching RMB 1.41 billion, marking a fundamental turnaround from the RMB 571 million loss recorded a year earlier.
Low-Carbon Moat and Full-Chain Empowerment: Redefining the Green Value Framework of the PV Industry
With the implementation of the EU carbon border tax and the rise of global ESG investing, low carbon performance has become a passport for photovoltaic products in international markets. The carbon footprint advantage of GCL Technology’s granular silicon not only reinforces its own competitive position, but also drives the entire photovoltaic value chain to transition from high energy consumption and high emissions toward low energy use and low carbon intensity, reshaping industry-wide value benchmarks.
According to the 2025 interim report, granular silicon tracked under GCL Technology’s Carbon Chain Management Platform records a “cradle-to-gate” carbon footprint of just 41 kg CO₂e per kilogram — far below the 81 kg CO₂e per kilogram characterization factor for rod polysilicon in the widely used Ecoinvent 3.9.1 database.
The strategic significance of this breakthrough lies in resolving a long-standing challenge for Chinese photovoltaic companies, which were previously compelled to adopt higher European carbon factors, leading to inflated carbon accounting results. This marks a pivotal transition for China’s photovoltaic industry from a passive “carbon factor taker” to an active “carbon standard setter.” As the EU’s carbon tax increasingly hinges on product carbon footprints, GCL’s granular silicon enables downstream module manufacturers to avoid carbon costs amounting to hundreds of euros per tonne, thereby creating a tangible green premium in global competition.
This low-carbon advantage is now cascading through the entire industry chain. In its coverage, China Central Television’s Morning News noted that GCL Technology’s granular silicon technology “effectively drives carbon reduction across the entire industry chain and accelerates progress toward a zero-carbon world.” Breakthroughs at the upstream polysilicon stage have enabled midstream cell and module manufacturers to optimize production processes, while downstream power plants can command higher green electricity premiums through low-carbon photovoltaic products, forming a closed-loop low-carbon ecosystem from silicon materials to power generation.
Against this backdrop, GCL Technology’s market influence continues to expand. In the first half of 2025, its granular silicon output captured a market share of 24.32%. Through a sales-driven production strategy, the company compressed inventory cycles to as short as one week, achieving a virtuous “produce-as-you-sell” model. This directly contributed to a nearly 70% rebound in polysilicon prices from cyclical lows, stabilizing pricing across the value chain and alleviating prolonged inventory pressure and destructive price competition.
Capital Endorsement and Strategic Expansion: Granular Silicon Strengthens China’s Global PV Voice
International capital often serves as a barometer of industrial value. In September 2025, GCL Technology secured a USD 700 million strategic financing agreement with Infinite Capital, an investor backed by Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Beyond injecting fresh capital into technological upgrades and capacity optimization, the transaction underscores global capital’s confidence in China’s photovoltaic technology pathways. At its core, granular silicon, as a representative of new-quality productivity, is enabling China’s photovoltaic industry to evolve from product exports to technology exports, gradually gaining a stronger voice in global industry governance.
According to disclosures, the HKD 5.446 billion (approximately USD 700 million) raised through the targeted placement will be allocated to three key areas. First, to reserve funds for supply-side reform, facilitating structural adjustments in polysilicon capacity and accelerating the phase-out of outdated production. Second, to strengthen the silane gas business as a “second growth curve,” leveraging the world’s leading silane gas capacity to expand into high-end applications such as semiconductor integrated circuits, BC cells, solid-state batteries, and display panels, thereby avoiding homogeneous competition in traditional polysilicon. Third, to optimize the capital structure, reducing the asset-liability ratio (excluding endorsed and discounted notes) to 38.4% and further reinforcing the company’s equity moat.
The expansion into silane gas represents a critical step in GCL Technology’s strategic diversification. As photovoltaic cells transition toward BC architectures, lithium batteries move toward solid-state designs, and semiconductor demand continues to grow, the market for silane gas is expanding rapidly. With its global leadership in both capacity and technology, GCL Technology is well positioned to capture this emerging blue-ocean market. Industry analysts observe that the synergy between the silane gas business and granular silicon not only consolidates existing advantages but also cultivates future growth engines, equipping GCL with dual drivers in the global energy transition.
The value of this strategic positioning is increasingly recognized by authoritative voices. China Central Television’s Economic Information Network has described GCL Technology as “a benchmark for breaking the industry’s price war and navigating cyclical downturns,” while Morning News has highlighted the company as a model case of the nation’s anti-involution strategy. More importantly, as supply-side reforms deepen and global demand for low-carbon photovoltaic products continues to rise, granular silicon is poised to become a mainstream product in the global photovoltaic industry. This implies that China’s photovoltaics will export not only cost-effective products, but also technical standards and low-carbon solutions, securing a more advantageous position in the global energy transition.
From technological breakthroughs to cost discipline, from low-carbon leadership to capital endorsement, GCL Technology’s granular silicon vividly demonstrates how new-quality productive forces can revitalize traditional industries. Amid the reshaping of the global energy landscape, this Chinese photovoltaic company is advancing with technology and low carbon as twin engines, driving the sector from “scale leadership” to “value leadership” — and turning granular silicon into a core global calling card for China’s photovoltaics. This is not merely the growth story of a single enterprise, but a microcosm of how China’s manufacturing sector leverages innovation to break through and compete on the world stage.
