GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Limited. (HKG:3800), one of the leading Chinese polysilicon producers, has released its third-quarter numbers. The company has produced 7,361MT of polysilicon, 19.3% more than last year’s quarter, while it has sold 675MT at $20.1/kg. This has taken the total production and sales numbers of polysilicon in the current fiscal year to 32,864MT and 9,669MT, at a selling price of $23/kg. In the wafer segment, GCL has produced 1,689MW of wafer, which shows a 40.6% increase over last year’s quarter, while it has sold 3.8% more wafer year-on-year with 1,130MW at $0.25 per watt. The third quarter has witnessed the lowest level of polysilicon and wafer shipments in 2012.
Total wafer production for the first nine months has increased by 40.6% from 2011 to 4,731MW, while it has sold 4,316MW in the same period that shows a 34.5% annual increase. The company’s operations have been hit hard by the U.S. AD/CVD. Moreover, the slow economic growth in Europe due to the debt crisis is translating into weak demand.
Overall, the company’s average selling price (ASP) for polysilicon and solar has come down by 22.7% and by 10.7% from Q1 to Q3. On a nine-month basis, the polysilicon and solar prices have seen an even bigger decline of 60.68% and 58.06% from 2011.
The power and steam sales have increased in the first nine months by 11.9% and 10.7% to 4,072,171 MWh and 6,118,130 tons, respectively. In the first three quarters, the steam sales have remained fairly stable, but power sales have shown consistent improvements in each quarter. Unlike the other segments, the average on-grid tariff and the average steam prices have both increased by 0.60% and 2.94%, respectively.
Following the sale of 92MW of California’s solar projects in July to Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED), GCL has recently sold two more solar plants in California to an undisclosed buyer for $50.5M. For the future, the company plans to maintain its 65,000MT polysilicon and 8GW wafer capacity in 2013. Earlier this year, GCL-Poly had revealed that it had entered into a long-term financing agreement with Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) for solar projects of approximately 1GW capacity in the U.S.
GCL’s chairman Zhu Gongshan believes that their action “solidifies our position to further expand from our over-1GW solar farm pipeline we have in the US, and sets another good execution example for our dual-core strategy.” Until H1-2012, the company had 469MW of completed solar projects under its belt, while 95MW were under construction. The business had also acquired approval for developing 340MW of solar power plants in Shanxi province, China.
Solar industry analysts at IHS iSuppli have identified that leading Chinese polysilicon producers will continue to retain their production levels despite the slump in prices, as they do not want to lose market share and eventually miss out when the polysilicon prices start rising again.
