(Yicai) Oct. 30 -- Hangzhou First Applied Material is spending USD270 million to build three new plants in China, Thailand and Vietnam that make encapsulation films and backsheets for solar panels to better serve the local markets and consolidate the company's leading position in the global photovoltaic packaging materials field.

First Applied will spend CNY608 million (USD83 million) to construct a high-efficiency battery encapsulation film factory with an annual capacity of 300 million square meters in Hangzhou, where the firm is based, it said on Oct. 27. The Hangzhou facility will be built according to its existing production lines and it should be finished before December 2026.

There will also be a high-efficiency battery encapsulation film plant with a yearly output of 250 million square meters in Thailand, costing USD159 million, it said. This will also take three years to build and should reach its designed capacity by December 2026.

The Vietnam plant, costing USD27.7 million, will manufacture PV backsheets and will have an annual capacity of 30 million square meters, First Applied said. The factory should be up and running before December 2025.

Southeast Asia’s PV module output is expanding rapidly and First Applied needs to set up adequate production facilities in the region to meet the growing demand of local clients, it said. The three factories will also allow First Applied to supply its clients with a better range of solutions for solar panel packaging as more high-efficiency PV cells, such as TopCon cells, come onto the market, it added.

First Applied’s stock price [SHA:603806] closed up 2.18 percent at CNY25.75 (USD3.52) today.

Editor: Kim Taylor