Recently, lured by soaring polysilicon prices, polysilicon companies have been expanding production, and a significant amount of capital has flowed into the polysilicon production industry. Although the current supply still falls short of demand, overcapacity of polysilicon is highly probable in the foreseeable future.
At that time, polysilicon manufacturers are very likely to launch a price war, ending up in a situation of "losing money to gain market share." From the perspective of the photovoltaic industry alone, there are indeed some concerns. However, polysilicon is not only used to manufacture silicon wafers, but it is also an essential raw material for manufacturing chips. There are certain differences between the two, but polysilicon manufacturers can make preparations for both scenarios when constructing projects.
According to purity, polycrystalline silicon can be classified into metallurgical grade, solar energy grade, and electronic grade.
Among them, the purity requirement for metallurgical grade is the lowest, only 90% to 95% or more, and some can be as high as 99.8% or more.
Solar-grade silicon requires an even higher purity, with a silicon content of 99.9999%. Some leading companies can achieve even higher purity silicon materials, with a purity of 99.9999% or higher.
However, electronic-grade silicon requires a much higher purity, generally 99.999999%, and ultra-high purity can even reach 9 to 11 nines. This places higher demands on silicon material companies, so there are not many companies that can produce electronic-grade polysilicon, and most silicon material companies still produce polysilicon with a purity level that meets solar-grade requirements.
As my country accelerates its pace in chip manufacturing, the demand for electronic-grade polysilicon is increasing, representing a promising market. When expanding production or entering the polysilicon production sector, companies may consider using electronic-grade polysilicon as an entry point to produce high-purity polysilicon. This would help them avoid future price wars in the polysilicon market. Moreover, electronic-grade polysilicon can also be used in the production of photovoltaic silicon wafers.
