(Yicai Global) Oct. 11 -- Shares of Chinese solar wafer supplier Shangji Automation, which boosted its net profit by almost six times in the first half, jumped after the firm said it has received a long-term order from photovoltaic cell maker Longheng New Energy.

Shangji's stock price [SHA: 603185] surged as much as 9 percent to CNY279.60 (USD43.40) intraday. The shares have doubled in value this year.

Longheng will purchase 670 million solar silicon wafers from Shangji's subsidiary in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the next three years, the Wuxi-headquartered seller said in a statement recently. The contract's pre-tax value is about CNY4 billion based on current market prices.

Shangji made about CNY3.6 billion in revenue in the first half, more than tripling from a year ago, due to its expanding output and soaring product prices, according to the firm's earnings report. Net profit surged almost six times to CNY849 million (USD131.9 million).

The jump is caused by products used to make solar cells. Between January and June, Shangji added a capacity of 13 gigawatts of monocrystalline silicon wafers to have a total of 20 GW. Currently, the company is increasing its output by 10 GW, according to its first-half earnings report.

Since last year, Jiangsu province-based Longheng has been building a new plant in its eastern home province to make solar cells and modules. The first and second phases of the CNY11.5 billion (USD1.8 billion) factory have begun trial production. The output should reach 15 GW of photovoltaic cells and 3.5 GW of panels after all the four phases are ready, according to public data.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi