(Yicai) Oct. 9 -- Hunan Huamin Holdings, a newcomer to China's photovoltaic industry, has secured its fourth large solar wafer order since the middle of August.

Tongwei will purchase over 1.5 million high-efficiency solar wafers from Huamin's plant in southwestern China's Yunnan province before the end of 2026, the Changsha-based supplier announced late yesterday. The deal is expected to bring Huamin a total operating income of CNY4.5 billion (USD617.2 million), it added.

Huamin announced it had received CNY5.5 billion, CNY4.4 billion, and CNY6.3 billion orders on Aug. 16, Aug. 22, and Sept. 5.

The Yunnan plant produces solar silicon rods and wafers specifically designed to make advanced high-efficiency N-type heterojunction solar cells, with an annual production capacity of 10 gigawatts. The plant's second phase, which is expected to add annual capacities of 10 GW of silicon rods and 4 GW of silicon wafers, will be completed in November.

Although the solar wafer market faces overcapacity pressures, the supply of N-type silicon wafer products is still relatively limited, so their growth potential is huge. The production capacity of newly developed high-efficiency solar cells, including N-type HJT cells, accounted for less than 3 percent of China's total in 2021, with the figure expected to reach 40 percent by 2025 and exceed 75 percent by 2030, according to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

In order to ensure the supply of raw materials, Huamin also announced yesterday that its Yunnan plant signed polycrystalline silicon supply deals with five units of Tongwei, stipulating that the latter will supply 56,800 tons of polycrystalline silicon to the Yunnan plant before the end of 2026. The actual purchase price will be determined monthly, but according to current market prices, the deals are expected to be worth CNY5.1 billion.

Tongwei is the leading supplier of polycrystalline silicon in the upstream reaches of the PV supply chain. But it also has large capacity layouts in the middle and downstream reaches of the supply chain.

Huamin is actually processing high-efficiency solar wafers for Tongwei, according to the deals the parties signed.

Huamin's shares [SHE: 300345] closed 0.2 percent down at CNY8.73 (USD1.20) today.

Editor: Futura Costaglione