Xinyu City, China: LDK Solar Reaches 1GW Wafer Production Capacity

LDK Solar held a ceremony this week-end celebrated its wafer plant reaching the milestone of 1.0 GW annualized capacity. This event was hosted by Mr. Xiaofeng Peng, Founder, Chairman and CEO in Xinyu, China.

"I would like to congratulate our team on their remarkable speed in expanding wafer production capacity and their success in reaching the 1.0 GW milestone ahead of schedule," commented Chairman Peng. "We are pleased to achieve one of the fastest capacity ramps within the solar industry as we expand our production capabilities to meet the continued strong demand from our growing global customer base."

"We are proud to reach this significant milestone and remain confident in our ability to expand to 1.2 GW wafer capacity by the end of 2008. This achievement demonstrates our continued commitment to becoming the largest and lowest cost wafer producer in the solar industry," concluded Mr. Peng.

LDK Solar's 1.0 GW production capacity is in line with the company's publicly announced plans to reach a target annualized wafer production capacity of up to 1.2 GW by the end of 2008, 2.2 GW by the end of 2009 and 3.2 GW by the end of 2010.

In addition, the company today provided the following preliminary outlook for 2009. Revenue is expected to be between $2.8 billion and $3.0 billion, while wafer shipments will be between 1.45 GW to 1.55 GW.

Renewable Energy Focus
LONDON, UK, September 1, 2008. The price of polysilicon is set to drop by up to 43% next year, according to the New Energy Finance Silicon and Wafer Price Index, which was recently launched by analysts New Energy Finance.

The analysis shows that shortages and production bottlenecks in these key materials in recent years have kept the cost of photovoltaic (PV) modules some 37% higher than would otherwise have been the case. Despite this, the number of new PV installations worldwide soared by 56% in 2007, and is set to rise a further 50% in 2008.

The data for the Index covered wafer volume equivalent to approximately 1.7 GW of PV modules, plus polysilicon data equivalent to approximately 6 GW.

The key findings include:

- The median forward price for polysilicon deliveries in 2009 is 43% lower than the median contract price for deliveries in 2008.

- The forward contract price for polysilicon falls for each year from 2008 to 2015, to below US$67/kg by 2013, a full 67% below current median prices. This is, however, still higher than the historical low spot prices between 2002 and 2004.

- The median forward price for multicrystalline wafers will hold at approximately the same level in 2009 as currently, indicating that the wafer supply situation is not expected to free up as quickly as polysilicon supply.

- Over the next five years, median forward contract prices for wafers drop by 41%, compared with a drop of 67% in forward polysilicon contracts, further suggesting that margin will shift from polysilicon refining to wafer manufacturing.

- The median forward contract wafer price falls below US$6/piece (US$1.62/W) only from 2011, with implications for the speed and cost reductions in PV power.

The New Energy Finance Silicon and Wafer Price Index is based on confidential data provided by 10 volume buyers and sellers of polysilicon and wafers, that have provided spot and forward pricing data for contracts signed in 2007 and 2008.

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Wuxi, China: Suntech Announces Groundbreaking of PV Cell Production Facility

Suntech Power has commenced groundbreaking of a new PV cell production facility in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China. Suntech intends to complete the facility with a PV cell production capacity of 300MW by the end of 2009.

The new production site will facilitate Suntech’s capacity expansion plans to reach 1.4GW by year end 2009 and 2GW by year end 2010. Located in Yangzhou, the PV cell production facility is close to Suntech’s strategic silicon supply partner, Shunda Holdings Co. Ltd., and within two hours drive of Suntech’s Wuxi headquarters.

Proximity to Shunda’s world-class polysilicon plant will enable Suntech to realize production and operational synergies that are expected to accelerate Suntech’s cost reduction initiatives and path to grid parity.