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Utech Breaks Ground to Construct Crystalline Silicon Factory

2011/03/08 | By Ken Liu

Taipei, March 8, 2011 (CENS)--Utech Solar Corp., which is partly owned by solar-cell maker Gintech Energy Corp., yesterday broke ground to construct a crystalline-silicon production facility at its factory campus in Miaoli County, northern Taiwan, kicking off its aggressive project to turn out one gigawatts of the material a year as an ultimate goal.

The first-phase project of the construction is designed to equip the company with an output capacity of 330 megawatts of the silicon a year. The production lines will come on stream in July this year and run at full capacity in March next year, bringing in the company NT$6 billion (US$200 million at US$1:NT$30) in annual revenue.

According to Gintech Chairman W.Y. Pan, the factory will be able to turn out one gigawatts of the material for making solar cells when its second-phase project is completed.

The crystalline-silicon maker is estimated to generate revenue of up to NT$20 billion (US$666 million) a year when second-phase project is completed, according to Pan.

The first-phase and second-phase projects will require respective investment of NT$6.6 billion (US$220 million) and NT$10 billion (US$333 million) respectively.

Pan pointed out that his company will depend on Utech for only 30% of the material supply, leaving the remaining capacity at Utech to non-Gintech buyers.

Capitalized at NT$1.6 billion (US$53 million), Utech is co-held by Taiwan Fertilizer Co., Ltd., CTCI Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Gintech and an electrical company in Taiwan.