Polycrystalline silicon production technology gradually matures and output continues to increase

Polycrystalline silicon is a form of elemental silicon. It is mainly produced by chlorination of dry hydrogen chloride gas and dry silicon powder under certain conditions, followed by condensation, distillation, and reduction. The hardness of polycrystalline silicon is between that of germanium and quartz. It has greater chemical activity at high temperatures and can interact with almost any material. According to different application fields, polysilicon can be roughly divided into electronic grade polysilicon, solar polysilicon, metallurgical grade polysilicon, etc.

After years of development, polysilicon production processes have gradually matured and can be roughly divided into metallurgical methods, fluidized bed methods, gas-liquid deposition methods, silane methods, modified Siemens methods, etc. Among them, the improved Siemens production process has the advantages of low investment risk, low production cost, and easy expansion, and has become the mainstream production process in the industry.

At present, my country’s polysilicon industry chain has been basically completed. The upstream of the industrial chain is the raw material industry and parts industry, mainly raw materials such as silicon materials and granular silicon, as well as related production equipment such as wire cutting machines, ingot splitting machines, and ingot casting machines; the midstream is mainly the polysilicon production industry, responsible for the manufacturing of different types of polysilicon link; the downstream is mainly oriented to application fields, mostly used in photovoltaic power generation, integrated circuits, electronic appliances, semiconductors, chemical industry and other fields.

According to the “China Polysilicon Product Market Analysis Feasibility Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, in recent years, my country’s industry and manufacturing industry are developing rapidly, and energy demand is growing. However, since fossil energy is non-renewable and will produce a large amount of pollutants during use, which will have a huge adverse impact on the ecological environment, photovoltaic power generation emerged as the times require. With the support of my country’s national policies, the photovoltaic power generation market has developed rapidly and the installed capacity has gradually increased. According to data released by the China Electricity Council, my country’s cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity will reach 392.61GW in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 28.07%. Polycrystalline silicon is the basic raw material for photovoltaic power generation, and its market demand is gradually growing. Coupled with the gradual advancement of my country’s polysilicon production technology, the production capacity of equipment has gradually expanded, and its output has gradually increased. According to data released by the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, my country’s polysilicon production will reach 827,000 tons in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 63.40%.

Industry analysts said that my country’s polysilicon market is highly concentrated and leading companies have emerged. my country’s larger polysilicon companies mainly include GCL Technology, Daqo New Energy, Huaguang Co., Ltd., Oriental Hope, New Energy, Silicon Star, Jinghao Energy, Zhongneng Silicon, China Star Optoelectronics, Sungrow, Central Co., Ltd., and Longi Green Energy etc. Among them, Tongwei Co., Ltd. has the largest market share, accounting for 28.71%; followed by Daqo New Energy, with a market share of 17.63%; ranking third is GCL Technology, with a market share of 16.24%. In order to further seize market share, my country’s polysilicon companies need to continuously conduct product research and development, optimize production technology, and improve product quality, and their market competition has become more intense.