Impact of Earthquake in Luding, Sichuan on Local Silicon Metal Plants

SHANGHAI, Sept 5 (SMM) - At 12:52 today, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Luding County (29.59 degrees north latitude, 102.08 degrees east longitude), Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Residents in the surrounding areas felt the strong tremor and the epicentre depth was 16 kilometres. Since Sichuan, one of the main producing areas of lithium salt and polysilicon, plays an important role in photovoltaic manufacturing, SMM quickly conducted a survey on the impact of the earthquake on local related enterprises.

According to SMM survey, the earthquake has not affected the normal production of silicon metal enterprises in Sichuan. But the silicon mental enterprises in Aba Prefecture have been under the influence of pandemic as transportation was hindered due to road control and other restrictions.

In terms of photovoltaics, SMM learned that so far the earthquake has a relatively limited impact on the production of polysilicon and cells in Sichuan, but the production of silicon wafters has been greatly affected. It is because that the demand on the verticality of silicon rods is high during the production of silicon wafters. When earthquake breaks out, the furnace charge and silicon rods are shaken so hard that the rods might snap. The specific impact on local production is still under evaluation.

It is worth mentioning that the supply of silicon wafters in Sichuan was cut due to previous power rationing, which had basically ended last Thursday. Although it needs 7-10 days for the silicon wafer production capacity to recover, the operating capacity has already been in a surplus, thus the silicon wafer prices remained stable in spite of the fall in supply. The SMM spot prices of Mono Wafer M10-182mm rose 0.05 yuan/pc today to 7.48-7.54 yuan/pc, with an average price of 7.51 yuan/pc.