Shares of Mubang High-Tech soared by the exchange-imposed daily trading limit after the Chinese toymaker that made a foray into the solar wafer market in 2022 said it plans to invest CNY7 billion (USD977 million) to expand its production capacity of high-efficiency photovoltaic cells.
Mubang [SHA: 603398] closed up 10 percent at CNY21.10 (USD2.94) in Shanghai today. The stock has fallen about 60 percent from its all-time high set in August 2022, mainly because of worries related to the industry’s overcapacity.
Mubang will build a new plant with an annual production capacity of 10 gigawatts of high-efficiency solar cells in Tongling, China’s eastern Anhui province, the Jiangxi province-based firm announced late yesterday.
The plant will be built in two phases, Mubang added. The first phase, with an investment of CNY4 billion, will have an annual production capacity of 5 GW of n-type high-efficiency PV cells and 5 GW of solar wafers, expected to start trial production around October. The second phase will begin construction after the first one comes on stream.
The sales revenue target of the plant is no less than CNY1.5 billion for the first year after the first phase kicks off operation, Mubang noted, citing the deal it reached with the Tongling local government. The company is expected to pay no less than CNY100 million (USD14 million) in taxes in the period, while the figure will gradually increase to CNY300 million or more from the fourth to eighth operating year.
Mubang entered the PV industry in 2022 when it acquired Haoan Energy Technology for CNY980 million. That year, the firm’s revenue from PV silicon rods and wafers accounted for about 72 percent of the total, according to its 2022 annual report.
Since then, Mubang has extended its business to the downstream reaches of the PV industry supply chain. The company has nearly completed construction at its high-efficiency solar cell plant with an annual production capacity of 10 GW in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Despite the continuous decline in PV product prices amid the supply glut in the industry, the production capacity of advanced technology products, including n-type high-efficiency cells, is still in short supply, providing new PV industry players with an opportunity to invest in this direction and gain a head start in the competition.
（Picture: Veer）
