(Yicai Global) Dec. 31 -- Shares in Flat Glass Group hit the exchange-imposed daily limit today on the news that China’s second biggest maker of photo-voltaic glass will supply CNY14.2 billion (USD2.2 billion) worth of products to Jinko Solar Holdings, the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer.

Jiaxing, Zhejiang province-based Flat Glass [SHA:601865] shot up 10 percent to close at CNY39.90 (USD6.10).

Flat Glass and four of its units will supply 338 million square meters of PV glass to Shanghai-based Jinko Solar and five affiliates, including one in Malaysia, over the next three years at an average price of CNY42 (USD6.40) per square meter, Flat Glass said yesterday. It is estimated this will be used to make 59 gigawatts of photovoltaic cell modules.

Flat Glass will also invest CNY4.35 billion (USD664.3 million) to build five industrial furnaces with a melting capacity of 1,200 tons in Chuzhou, eastern Anhui province to expand its production capacity and better meet growing demand for larger photovoltaic components, it added yesterday. Furnaces have cost advantages and can produce customized products more easily, it added.

Flat Glass is predicting net profit of between CNY1.48 billion (USD226 million) and CNY1.64 billion this year, more than double that of last year as the price of PV glass surges, the firm said on Dec. 29.

The average cost of a 3.2-millimeter-thick pane of PV glass has jumped 48 percent since the start of the year to CNY43 (USD6.60) per square meter as of Dec. 23, according to market research firm PV InfoLink.

Editor: Kim Taylor