The solar industry's two largest enterprises, GCL and LONGi have signed a major polysilicon supply deal, the first time the rivals have entered into a major business deal together.

Major polysilicon producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings is set to supply all of LONGi’s seven monocrystalline ingot/wafer subsidiaries with a total of 91,400MT of polysilicon from March 2021 through to the end of 2023.

Current average market prices of high-grade polysilicon have reached nearly US$14.0/kg, more than double prices seen in 2019. At current prices the supply deal would cost LONGi approximately RMB7.328 billion (US$1.13 billion).

In a separate financial statement, GCL-Poly said that the polysilicon procurement agreement with LONGi’s subsidiaries would include the supply of its Fluidized Bed Reactor (FBR) ‘Granular’ polysilicon, without stating any specific quantities.

However, GCL-Poly had separately stated that it had successfully increased FBR production from 6,000MT to a planned 10,000MT with purity levels in-line with p-type mono ingot/wafer quality needs, according to the company.

LONGi is the largest mono wafer producer in the PV industry and is targeting a series of capacity expansions to meet growing demand for its wafers as well as support its in-house PV module manufacturing targets of approximately 50GW in 2021.

The company claimed it reached over 20GW of PV module shipments at the end of November 2020 and has forecasted for total shipments in 2020 to range from 24GW to 26GW.