(Yicai Global) June 23 -- Shares of Shangji Automation rose after unveiling a CNY14.8 billion (USD2.2 billion) plan to expand the capacity of photovoltaic wafer materials at its plant in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Shangji [SHA: 603185] was trading up 1.2 percent at CNY131.53 (USD19.60) as of today’s lunch break, after earlier gaining as much as 3 percent.

The Wuxi-based silicon processing equipment maker will build a new production line for monocrystalline silicon rods at its base in Baotu, it said in a statement late yesterday. The project, which will have an annual capacity of 40 gigawatts, will be built in two phases of 20 GW each. The first phase will be completed next year.

Monocrystalline silicon is the main raw material for solar cell silicon wafers, which is an important source of profit for Shangji. At the end of last year, the firm’s annual capacity of monocrystalline silicon wafers soared to about 30 GW from 12 GW at the beginning of the year.

Shangji started the construction of the Baotu base in 2019 and since then it has been extending its solar wafer output by adding more production lines. Last year it started obtaining long-term orders from downstream battery manufacturers and in March alone, it received two long-term orders for a total of CNY7.9 billion (USD1.2 billion).

Editor: Futura Costaglione