German research company Bernreuter Research’s latest ranking of top polysilicon manufacturers shows that seven of the world’s top ten manufacturers are located in China. Although Wacker Chemie, headquartered in Germany, also has a polysilicon plant in Tennessee that ranks second on the 2020 list, the company’s president said that it has no plans to increase the production of solar-grade polysilicon. Bernreuter Research therefore predicts that by 2022, the top 4 polysilicon manufacturers will all come from China.

The top 10 polysilicon manufacturers in 2020 include:

1. Tongwei (China)

2. Wacker (Germany/United States)

3. Daquan New Energy (China)

4. GCL-Poly (China)

5. Xinte Energy (China)

6. Xinjiang Oriental Hope New Energy (China)

7. OCI (Korea/Malaysia)

8. Asia Silicon Industry (China)

9. Hemlock (United States)

10. Inner Mongolia Dongli Photovoltaic Electronics (China)

Bernreuter Research pointed out that OCI ranked seventh after closing its solar-grade polysilicon business in South Korea last year. Wacker (Wacker) fell to second place this year, has been ranked first, but it is still the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic grade polysilicon in the semiconductor industry. However, compared with the rapidly growing Chinese competitors, WACKER has no intention to increase its solar-grade capacity. Its CEO Rudolf Staudigl said in a conference call held on April 30, “We are not interested in building incredible new capabilities. interest”. Therefore, Berreuter Research predicts that WACKER will be surpassed by three other Chinese manufacturers and fall to fifth place in 2022.

Johannes Bernreuter, head of Bernreuter’s research department and author of “Polysilicon Market Outlook 2024”, said: “The rise of top-ranked Chinese companies is an increasingly important role model for China’s polysilicon industry. In the next few years, China The market share of global solar-grade polysilicon production will be close to 90%.”

The report believes that if countries other than China do not want to completely rely on China’s solar energy products to transition to renewable energy, they must implement effective and long-term manufacturing industries for non-Chinese solar energy supply chains (especially silicon ingots and wafers). policy. He also pointed out that low-cost and renewable hydropower projects in the Northwestern United States, Canada, Norway and Malaysia provide them with opportunities for alternative fuel supply chains.