(Yicai Global) April 13 -- Gaoce Technology plans to invest CNY5 billion (USD727 million) to construct a photovoltaic wafer cutting plant so as to boost the Chinese solar and semiconductor wafer cutting equipment maker’s wafer cutting services.

The new facility, which will be located in rented space in an industrial park in Yibin, southwestern Sihcuan province, will have an annual slicing capacity of 50 gigawatts, the Qingdao, eastern Shandong province-based company said yesterday.

The project will help the company take full advantage of its strengths as a supplier of wafer cutting equipment and consumables to provide wafer cutting and processing services for customers and hence reduce wafer production costs, Gaoce said.

The factory will be built in two phases, it said. The first phase will have a yearly output of 25 GW and should be ready by 2024. The second phase is expected to start construction within six months of the first phase coming online.

Business has been good for Gaoce amid a booming PV market. Wafer sales soared almost seven-fold last year from the year before to 1.1 billion while revenue surged nearly nine-fold to CNY929 million (USD135 million), accounting for 26 percent of the company’s total earnings, according to its 2022 annual report released last week.

Unmoved by the news, Gaoce’s share price [SHA:688556] was trading down 2.3 percent at CNY65.07 (USD9.47) as of 1.13 p.m. China time today.

Editor: Kim Taylor