The production capacity of Dale new material diamond line doubled and the expansion of the industry went hand in hand.
On the evening of November 18th, Daile New Materials (300700) announced that it planned to increase the diamond production capacity by 36 million km/year through equipment technical renovation, process upgrading and purchasing some new production lines. After this expansion, the total production capacity of the company will reach 72 million km/year, with an estimated investment of about 150 million yuan. It is estimated that the capacity increase will be completed in the first half of 2023.
Benefiting from the rapid growth of photovoltaic industry, as an upstream consumable, the demand for diamond wire has also expanded accordingly. Since the beginning of this year, companies in the industry have successively expanded their production. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of demand, diamond wires have continued to be iteratively upgraded. The industry believes that the supply and demand of diamond wire products with superior quality will remain tight for a long time to come.
Busy industry expansion
At present, the global photovoltaic installation is growing rapidly, and the demand for silicon wafers is strong to boost production capacity. As the main consumables for silicon wafer cutting, the demand is released rapidly.
In April this year, Daile New Materials has carried out a production expansion, which has been basically completed at present, and the production capacity of the invested equipment has reached 3 million km/month. After the second expansion, the total production capacity will double.
Faced with the current industry opportunities, diamond wire companies have greatly expanded their production this year.
Recently, Yujing Co., Ltd. recently said that the existing production capacity of the company’s diamond line is 800,000 km/month, and it is planned to increase the production capacity by 1 million km/month on the existing basis. The new production capacity is expected to be put into production in the first quarter of 2023.
In addition, Yujing Co., Ltd. also disclosed that the company’s silicon wafer slicing project in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province is still under construction, which is mainly for Shuangliang Company. The first phase of 10GW is expected to be put into production in the first quarter of 2023, and then the production capacity will gradually climb, and the second phase will be gradually promoted according to the situation in order to achieve the expected goal. In addition to the silicon wafer slicing project in Yancheng, Jiangsu, the company has built a 1GW slicing pilot workshop in Yiyang (the company headquarters), and has now achieved mass production.
With the rapid expansion of the industry, will there be overcapacity?
A few days ago, Daile New Materials said in an investigation that most of the expansion plans announced by various enterprises are built by stages, and it takes a time for the expansion itself to form a real production capacity. It will take time to verify whether the expansion can meet the expectations.
Dale New Materials said that with the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry, the concentration of the downstream photovoltaic industry is getting higher and higher, which shows that the scale of a single enterprise is getting bigger and bigger, and all enterprises are improving their market competitiveness through technological progress to varying degrees. As the key consumables for cutting, diamond wire has played a key role in the downstream customers’ continuous promotion of "thinning, slicing and large size", so customers’ requirements for diamond wire will be higher and higher. Judging from the current market feedback, because the cost of diamond wire is not high in the cost of silicon wafer, the downstream processing customers mainly focus on the supply scale, cutting performance, continuous stability of quality and the ability to upgrade products.
Based on this, Dale New Materials judges that the supply and demand of diamond wire products with superior quality may still be in a tight state for a long time to come.
In addition, Daile New Materials also said that the company’s expansion plan mainly combines the capacity planning of downstream customers and the expected future processing capacity demand to determine the company’s available share, and secondly considers the possible future demand of potential customers. Since the expansion of production this year, the company’s expanded production capacity has basically been released in time. The increment caused by the release of new production capacity is obvious among the company’s major customers. First, the demand of major customers to expand production itself is increasing, and second, the proportion of customers is increasing. In addition, the company is also actively expanding new customers to provide order guarantee for subsequent production capacity improvement.
The diameter of diamond wire is continuously refined
It is understood that at present, silicon wafers are gradually developing in the direction of large-size and thin-slice. At present, the mainstream silicon wafers on the market are 182-210mm in size and 150-155μm in slice thickness, and gradually become thinner in the direction of 130μm and 120μm with the thickness of silicon wafers. At present, the main diameter of diamond wire for cutting photovoltaic silicon wafer on the market is 36 μ m-40 μ m.
Some brokerage institutions believe that with the acceleration of the process of large-size and thinning of silicon wafers, it is expected that the iterative speed of photovoltaic slicers will be accelerated, and the market demand for wire cutting machines will continue to grow.
Recently, Daile New Materials said that at present, the mainstream product specifications of the company are 35um and 38um of carbon steel wire, of which the proportion of 35um specification has risen to the first place, and the proportion of 38um specification products is gradually decreasing, and the two specifications together account for more than 80%, and the smallest one supplied in small batches is 33um；; The remaining 20% are carbon steel wire diamond wire and tungsten wire diamond wire with specifications of 40um and above; Tungsten wire and diamond wire company supplied 30-32um on a large scale, and 27um began to supply in small quantities.
For the current industry trends, Yujing shares pointed out that the main energy of downstream customers is still pushing the size and thinness. "At present, the company’s finest specification for carbon steel wire products is 33um, which has been supplied in batches, but the proportion is still relatively low. Finer carbon steel wire products are mainly limited by the technical level of raw materials, and the conversion and promotion of product specifications mainly depends on the needs of downstream customers. Secondly, upstream bus companies are also increasing research and development efforts, and strive to make the bus more detailed in improving materials. "
Yujing Co., Ltd. also said that at present, the company has developed a diamond wire specially used for processing silicon carbide semiconductor products, and it has been sold and steadily increased. At present, the market scale of silicon carbide semiconductor cutting is still relatively small, and the old free cutting method is mainly used, so there is no explosive demand. The company believes that it will definitely switch to the switching mode of King Kong Line in the future.
It is worth noting that recently, the impact of the downward price of silicon materials on the diamond wire industry has attracted attention.
In this regard, Yujing Co., Ltd. said in an investigation by investors that even if the price of silicon materials goes down, customers’ pursuit for further slicing and high yield of silicon chips is continuous, and the company’s wire cutting machine has a good market reputation in large-scale and slicing.
"If the thickness of silicon wafer slices continues to decrease in the direction of 130μm and 120μm, the existing slicing equipment in the market will be difficult to fully meet the processing requirements, and it is necessary to carry out technical transformation of slicing equipment or replace new equipment, which will also promote the sales growth of the company’s wire cutting machines."