Aug 25 2008
Trina Solar Limited, a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, founded in 1997, today announced that its subsidiary, Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co., Ltd., has signed a supplemental agreement to the long-term polysilicon supply agreement with a subsidiary of GCL Silicon Technology Holdings Inc..
Together with the original supply agreement announced in April of this year, GCL Silicon Technology will supply Trina Solar with virgin polysilicon and wafers sufficient to produce approximately 4,825 MW of solar modules in aggregate over eight years. Delivery of polysilicon at predetermined prices started in April of 2008.
''This supplemental agreement greatly extends our advantage in securing high quality polysilicon feedstock at predetermined prices to support our long-term sales growth. Combined with our other long-term agreements and increased manufacturing efficiencies, we remain confident in our abilities to expand our margins in the long term as the cost of solar energy approaches grid parity levels,'' said Jifan Gao, Trina Solar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
''Further, the supplemental agreement's inclusion of significant wafer quantities, starting in 2010, reflects a significant revision to our capacity expansion strategy, whereby future expansion will involve increased cell and module capacity additions relative to those for ingot and wafer. We believe that this flexible strategy will offer increased output of solar modules to achieve better market penetration under our increasingly recognized brand. This will also allow us to place our technology improvement emphasis on cell and module value areas to further strengthen our brand. For 2009, we intend to leverage on this dynamic strategy to efficiently extend our capacity growth to approximately 700MW for cell and module areas, while expanding ingot and wafer production capacities to approximately 500MW.''
''Trina Solar is an important strategic customer and we are encouraged by their progress made so far," said Hunter Jiang, CEO of GCL Silicon Technology. "GCL Silicon Technology remains committed to expand its production capacity to meet the growing demand from customers such as Trina Solar."
This supplemental supply agreement will further increase the Company's raw material supplies and enhance its cost structure, and therefore strengthen its position as a leading global PV manufacturer. After signing this supplemental agreement and together with other polysilicon supply agreements, the Company has now secured approximately 95% of its estimated silicon feedstock requirements for 2008, an equivalent of approximately 204 MW based on a production target of 210 to 220 MW of module output. The Company has also secured sufficient feedstock through its long term contracts to produce approximately 380 MW of solar modules in 2009.
Posted August 25th. 2008