BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Tongwei Co., Ltd (600438.SH) announce on Thursday that it planned to invest 8 billion yuan to build a high purity silicon and new energy project with an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons (tonnes) high purity silicon in Baotou, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The project will be carried out in two stages. The first-stage project with an annual capacity of 25,000 tonnes high purity silicon requires an investment of about 4 billion yuan and will cover an area of 800 mu (15 mu equal one hectare).
Tongwei said that construction of the first-stage project will start before September 30 this year. It will be completed in 2018. According to the current market performance, the first-stage project is expected to generate 3.5 billion yuan of operating revenue annually.
Upon completion of the project, Tongwei will see its silicon capacity reach 120,000 tonnes annually, plus the existing 20,000-tonne silicon project in Leshan, Sichuan province and the 50,000-tonne project now under construction, which will further consolidate its core competitiveness in the PV new energy industry chain. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)