Exclusive: Top China polysilicon firms plan to shut a third of production capacity, set OPEC-style output quotas, GCL says
The top polysilicon producer told Reuters on Thursday plans were being discussed to acquire and shut at least 1 million metric tons of lower-quality polysilicon capacity.
"It is sort of like the OPEC of polysilicon industry, wherein total supply for a specified timeframe has to be agreed by the central committee and production quotas to be allocated to producers," GCL's investor relations director Jun Zhu said.
The plan is one of the strongest signals yet that the heightened rhetoric against overcapacity rolled out by the government this month is translating into action. Chinese industry, from solar to electric vehicles, is grappling with massive overcapacity and vicious price wars that are wiping out profits.
GCL Chairman Zhu Gongshan said at an industry conference in June that major firms were working to restructure the industry, while local media reported producers were in talks to create an acquisition fund. Reuters is reporting the size, scope and timing of the plan for the first time.
State planner the National Development and Reform Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed closures would leave approximately 2 million tons of capacity remaining in the market, Jun Zhu said.
China's production capacity was 3.25 million tons at the end of 2024, according to figures from consultancy Bernreuter Research, indicating the proposed closures would comprise some 38% of capacity.
President Xi Jinping in early July called for an end to "disorderly price competition," and three days later the industry ministry pledged to calm price wars and retire outdated production capacity during a meeting with solar industry executives.
This rhetoric, combined with initiatives from various ministries and provincial governments have sent prices of industrial commodities soaring in recent weeks in anticipation of supply side reforms. Polysilicon prices are up nearly 70%.
The platform would be launched in the late third quarter of 2025 and would start making purchases in the fourth quarter, both of excess capacity and of market inventories, Jun Zhu said.
The fund's central committee, tasked to "make sure polysilicon prices fluctuate at a price range beneficial to all stakeholders", would be made up of polysilicon producers, platform creditors, and potentially regulators, he said.
($1=7.15 yuan)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Trump to be nominated for Nobel peace prize
President Donald Trump is being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Cambodia for helping to avert a deadly war in the region. Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol announced the decision on Friday, citing Trump's role in halting its border dispute with Thailand. Clashes between the two neighboring countries broke out late last week, with each accusing the other of firing first. At least 43 people were killed in intense skirmishes, which lasted five days and displaced more than 300,000 people on both sides of the border. Speaking to reporters earlier in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, Chanthol thanked Trump for intervening and said he deserved to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize is the highest-profile international award given to an individual or organization deemed to have done the most to 'advance fellowship between nations'. Most recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated Trump for the prize for his work in 2020 negotiating the Abraham Accords between Israel and several other Arab nations. Netanyahu's letter to the prize committee, which he handed to the president at the White House during a visit on July 7, said Trump had 'created new opportunities to expand the circle of peace and normalization' in the Middle East. Trump has assisted Israel's war in Gaza and has also aided in its campaign against Iran, authorizing a mission in June to destroy Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. Pakistan also said in June that it would recommend Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in helping to resolve a conflict it had with India back in May. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The ceremony is held in Oslo, Norway. After peace was declared between Cambodia and Thailand, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that Trump made it happen. 'Give him the Nobel Peace Prize!,' she said.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
India's renewable projects without supply deals double in nine months, documents show
SINGAPORE, Aug 1 (Reuters) - India's stranded renewable power capacity - projects awarded but unable to come online - more than doubled over nine months, due to unfinished transmission lines, and legal and regulatory delays, letters from an industry group to the government showed. The South Asian nation aims to more than double its non-fossil fuel power capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, but the acceleration has left projects without firm agreements to supply power. Renewable projects that won tenders to generate power but are yet to sign power purchase agreements with buyers have surged to over 50 gigawatts, India's Sustainable Projects Developers Association said in a letter to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy on June 27. That compared with stranded projects of over 20 GW, another letter sent by the SPDA on October 4 showed. Both letters were reviewed by Reuters. Tendered projects cumulatively worth billions of dollars awarded to companies including JSW, NTPC ( opens new tab, ( opens new tab, Adani Green ( opens new tab, ACME Solar ( opens new tab, Renew (RNW.O), opens new tab and Sembcorp ( opens new tab are stranded, two industry officials familiar with the matter said. "Energy transition is not just about building solar and wind capacity, it is also about ensuring that clean power reaches in a most optimum cost and timely manner," the SPDA said in its June 27 letter to the renewable energy ministry. The stranded solar and wind capacity without buyers of over 50 GW reported by the SPDA is about a quarter the size of India's current installed renewable capacity of 184.6 GW. The companies did not respond to Reuters requests seeking comment. A spokesperson for India's power ministry told Reuters on Saturday renewable projects of about 44 GW had been awarded generation licences by federal agencies - which account for most tenders - but did not have supply agreements. He did not elaborate on the scale of the increase in stranded projects, the duration of delay or companies affected. Delays in critical transmission infrastructure - especially in sun-drenched states such as Rajasthan and Gujarat - have forced many solar plants to miss commissioning deadlines, the SPDA said in the June letter. Interstate transmission lines connecting renewable energy projects to the grid are being fast-tracked, and compensation for landowners allowing power cables on their property has been increased to facilitate construction, the ministry spokesperson said. India plans to connect 230 GW of renewable energy projects to the grid through interstate transmission lines, of which 20% have been completed, 70% are under construction and the remainder is being bid out, he said, without specifying a timeline for completion. Renewable projects are also stuck due to prolonged legal disputes over land and environmental permissions, SPDA said, adding that several developers have paused operations over unresolved court cases.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
High taxes, a recession: my fears for young job hunters in Scotland
I started employing my latest assistant in March this year and for reliability, productivity, speed and all-round knowledge, he's hard to beat. Unfailingly polite and endlessly resourceful, he's settled into my small in-house team of seven with ease. Everyone loves him. Although he is only five months old and his background is unknown, he's already indispensable. He is, of course, one of the new autonomous artificial intelligence agents — otherwise known as agentic AI. This is one of the first publicly available AI agents capable of independent planning, decision-making and real-world task execution without requiring detailed human oversight. In beta mode and available by invitation only — codes were changing hands for $1,000 recently — it is a glimpse of a future that is awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal measure. For the time being, I'm ignoring the fact that I've had to hand over a lot of personal information to gain access (admittedly much of it already available online) and that very little is known about the Chinese start-up behind the technology. It is simply too valuable a tool and I'm already hooked. Agentic AI is turbocharging technical aspects of my business that other AI tools simply can't reach. I'm an optimist about the advent of AI. Or I should say, I'm an optimist about humanity. Such tools can, and are, being used for destructive purposes. But this is the best argument for not withdrawing from research. If the good guys slow down, they simply hand advantage to the bad actors. I understand the arguments against AI that end with humanity facing Armageddon. But mankind is perfectly capable of orchestrating its own destruction without the use of artificial intelligence. We just have to look at Gaza and Ukraine to be reminded of the depth of human depravity. Meanwhile AI is already saving lives. All progress has provoked moral panic. From the coming of the railways to Elvis wiggling his hips. And while my new AI assistant sometimes leaves me feeling like an 18th-century peasant contemplating the wonders of the internal combustion engine, I know that it is actual intelligence combined with AI that gives us the breakthroughs and competitive edge we need. While the AI assistant can code, I still need to employ my full-stack developer to implement, evaluate and interpret the results. But what is certainly true is that AI is contributing to an upcoming economic upheaval for which Scotland is wholly unprepared. A toxic combination of political decisions by the Labour government at Westminster and the SNP government in Scotland, a mental health crisis among millennials and Gen Zs and weak economic growth have the potential to tip the country into recession. This month, the accountancy firm EY reported that Scotland's high income tax rates were seen as the main barrier to expansion in Scotland's financial services industry, which contributes about 10 per cent of the Scottish economy by value. All Scottish workers earning more than £30,318 pay more income tax than their English counterparts and the highest band is set at 48 per cent for Scotland compared with 45 per cent for the rest of the UK. The job market is being squeezed from both ends. According to McKinsey & Co, the number of job vacancies online fell by 31 per cent in the three months to May, compared with the same period in 2022, the year that ChatGPT was launched. Research from KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation revealed that hiring fell in June at the fastest pace in almost two years. Sluggish growth and higher interest rates have been blamed but in occupations at entry level across all industries, including graduate traineeships and apprentices, jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate. The last apprentice I hired was unable to address an envelope and had no idea what a stamp was. She had a HNC in 'collective dance, specialising in hip-hop' and was about as prepared for the world of work as your average pigeon. She lasted three months. Somebody within the education system had let her down badly. Young people will be most seriously affected by the storm that is coming. They are also the group facing the biggest mental health crisis. In Scotland more than one million adults report that anxiety interferes with daily life. Gen Z and young millennials lose up to 60 days of productivity per year due to mental health issues compared with 36 days for older colleagues. The number of Scots out of work because of sickness and disability is at its highest level in 20 years and the number claiming disability payments in Scotland is set to almost double by 2030. Labour's plans under the Employment Rights Bill to remove the two-year qualifying period for key rights such as protection against unfair dismissal, parental leave and statutory sick pay, mean that many SMEs will not risk hiring staff without experience or a track record. That's if the SMEs stay in business. Confidence is at a low ebb. One in five small businesses believe they will be forced out of business if conditions don't improve. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, 27 per cent of business owners believe their company will downsize, be sold or close in the next 12 months. For the first time in 15 years, pessimism has outweighed optimism. Even profitable SMEs wonder if the juice is still worth the squeeze. The government is not protecting the jobs we do have. The closure of the Grangemouth refinery and the threat by bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis to move Scottish production to Scarborough could lead to 400 jobs lost in the Falkirk area. Add in jobs lost in the supply chain and the number rises to four figures. Both companies have foreign ownership, which rather dampens enthusiasm for the SNP government's boast that Scotland punches above its weight for inward investment. The Grangemouth closure and a sharp fall in manufacturing output drove a 0.4 per cent GDP decline in the three months up to May. About 80 per cent of leisure and hospitality businesses believe the Scottish economy will decline this year. John Swinney has mentioned a possible Scottish recession, blaming US tariffs. Even without a recession, growth is weak and Scottish economic activity is fragile. Even boom sectors such as renewables are facing cuts. At least one of the country's largest employers has just cut nearly all its graduate jobs for the present cohort reaching the end of their two-year training stint. Recent recessions have not brought the same level of job losses that the UK experienced in the 1990s and before. But that is set to change, and we are not prepared. This will affect a generation, already struggling post-pandemic, for most of their lives. The Scottish government has deliberately and negligently failed to promote the nation's economic wellbeing at the expense of ideology which a majority of voters do not share. As Harold Macmillan pointed out, it is 'events, dear boy' that bring down governments. But it is policy decisions that cripple countries.
