More progress has been made in the partnership between Yujing Machinery and Shuangliang Eco-Energy Systems in the development of a project for the manufacturing of large-size PV wafers. According to the reporting by various renewable energy news outlets, Yujing Machinery will join Shuangliang Eco-Energy Systems and Yongxin New Material in the development of a production base that will have an annual production capacity of 25GW for large-size wafers. Yujing Machinery provides multi-wire wafer slicing systems to PV product manufacturers. This news has attracted a lot of attention in the Chinese PV market.

Yujing Machinery first unveiled the plan to set up a wafer production base with Shuangliang Eco-Energy Systems and Yongxin New Material this April. The development efforts will be channeled through a joint venture of the three companies named Jiangsu Shuangjing. The base will be located in the Yancheng Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ), which is within China’s Jiangsu Province. On June 19, Yujing Machinery announced that in order to accelerate the wafer manufacturing project and lower the initial investments committed to the project by Jiangsu Shuangjing, an agreement has been signed among Jiangsu Shuangjing, Yancheng Dongchuang, and the governing authority of the Yancheng ETDZ for the outsourcing of the construction of the wafer production base.

The agreement among the three parties will allow the development of the project under the build-lease-transfer model. Yancheng Dongchuang will construct the factory buildings for Jiangsu Shuangjing. Upon the completion and acceptance of the factory buildings, Yancheng Dongchuan will lease these assets to Jiangsu Shuangjing. Within 60 days, Jiangsu Shuangjing will obtain the corresponding real estate certificate and buy back the factory buildings.

According to Yujing Machinery’s announcement made on April 7, Jiangsu Shuangjing will invest RMB 2.5 billion to set up an annual capacity of 25GW for wafer slicing and processing in the Yancheng ETDZ. Regarding the distribution of the ownership of the joint venture, Yujing Machinery will have a 70% stake, Shuangliang Eco-Energy Systems will have a 20% stake, and Yongxin New Material will have a 10% stake. This project is expected to provide additional growth momentum to Yujing Machinery’s wafer slicing and processing business.

Other renewable energy news outlets have reported that Jiangsu Shuangjing completed its company registration and obtained its operation license from the governing authority of the Yancheng ETDZ on April 22. Then, Jiangsu Shuangjing the completed the filing of its development or investment plan for the 25GW wafer production base with the governing authority of the Yancheng ETDZ on May 23. The company has received a document certifying that the development plan has been received by the authority.