**: The Paper.
At present, under the ** polysilicon, one of the leading polysilicon materials, GCL Technology (03800HK) is determined to completely exit Siemens' rod silicon business and fully bet on its granular silicon technology.
GCL Technology announced on the evening of December 29 that the company's joint venture Xinjiang Gones Energy Technology Co., Ltd. intends to distribute dividends to its shareholder Jiangsu Zhongneng Silicon Industry Technology Development Co., Ltd. and repurchase all its shares. Xinjiang Gones has a 60,000-ton rod silicon production capacity, and Jiangsu Zhongneng is a subsidiary of GCL Technology, a move that marks GCL Technology's complete abandonment of rod silicon production capacity.
According to the announcement, after the completion of the transaction, GCL Technology will focus on the R&D and production of FBR silane fluidized bed granular silicon technology. The proceeds from the transaction will increase the company's capital reserves and help the implementation of new granular silicon projects.
The Paper noted that before the equity of the Xinjiang Gones rod silicon project, GCL Technology had completely shut down the rod silicon production capacity of its Xuzhou base in June 2023 as the polysilicon had accelerated since the second quarter. Earlier, the company said that in the face of new energy changes and market challenges, it would "orderly exit the high-cost Siemens rod silicon production field and transfer limited production capacity to high-margin granular silicon".
Granular silicon is a type of granular polysilicon produced by chemical vapor deposition in a fluidized bed. Compared with the rod silicon produced by the traditional modified Siemens method, granular silicon has advantages in terms of cost and energy consumption. However, rod silicon is still the absolute mainstream of the current market, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, as of the end of 2022, the market share of rod silicon is 925%, granular silicon is 75%。
There are many leaders in the field of polysilicon, such as Tongwei Co., Ltd., Daqo Energy, and Xinte Energy, all of which use the modified Siemens method to manufacture rod silicon. In the face of increasingly fierce competition, GCL Technology regards granular silicon as a differentiated product that is expected to break the existing market pattern. According to the previously disclosed cost data, the production cost of the Leshan GCL granular silicon project is about 3568 yuan kg, significantly lower than the industry average cost.
According to the aforementioned announcement, after the completion of the transaction, GCL Technology is expected to recover 54$6.6 billion, including dividends of $44.6 billion7.3 billion yuan and 99.3 billion yuan. For the transaction caused by 39The loss of net assets of 7.4 billion yuan was mainly due to the impairment of goodwill, which a GCL Technology insider said. "Removing the goodwill part, the actual loss is about 700 million yuan, and taking into account the four-year installment situation and future market operation changes, on the whole, the transaction is basically in accordance with the consideration of net assets.
Some industry analysts believe that GCL Technology's "rejuvenation" of old production capacity and increase cash reserves are also due to the practical needs of overseas layout.
On December 10, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih and Zhu Gongshan, Chairman of GCL Group, exchanged views on GCL's new energy industry layout in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi side expressed the hope that GCL's new energy material technology project will be completed in Saudi Arabia as soon as possible. GCL Technology has also publicly stated that the company plans to open an overseas granular silicon plant with an annual output of 120,000 tons, which may start operation as early as 2025, and has considered factory locations in many countries, and the Middle East will be the first choice.