Surge 839.62%! This photovoltaic leader has made almost one year's money in three months.

photovoltaic industry . The story of "silicon is king" has not yet ended, and "sand is king" is becoming more and more exciting. On the evening of April

27, the leading domestic quartz sand company announced that the company's operating income in the first quarter was 1.223 billion yuan, an increase of 370.52% over the same period last year; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 821 million yuan, an increase of 839.62% over the same period last year. This was mainly due to the increase in sales of photovoltaic and semiconductor products during the reporting period. According to the 2022 annual report released

by Quartz on March 21, the company achieved revenue of 2.004 billion yuan and net profit of 1.058 billion yuan in 2022.

That is to say, the net profit in the first three months is only 237 million yuan less than net profit in the whole year of last year.

This also reflects the tight supply and demand of high purity quartz sand from the side. The main business of

quartz shares mainly involves the research and development, production and sales of high-purity quartz sand, high-purity quartz tubes and rods, quartz crucibles and other quartz materials, and the products are mainly used in photovoltaic, semiconductor, light source and other industries.

In recent years, the demand for photovoltaic power generation has increased rapidly, which has led to a substantial increase in the demand for photovoltaic upstream materials and equipment.

Data show that high-purity quartz sand is mainly used in the production of photovoltaic quartz crucibles in the photovoltaic industry, which is an important consumable in the process of crystal pulling. In the process of crystal pulling, the photovoltaic quartz crucible is used to hold the molten polysilicon material, which needs to be replaced after about 350 hours of use, so it is a high-frequency purchasing consumable.

In addition, in recent years, the rapid development of N-type high-efficiency single crystal in the photovoltaic crystal pulling process and the stringent requirements of the process have promoted the strong demand for high-quality quartz in the photovoltaic crystal pulling process.

Quartz shares said in the annual report that as the promotion of TOPCon process has gradually become the mainstream process of photovoltaic cells, the demand for quartz furnace tubes and quartz devices for battery manufacturing has also increased exponentially.

As a result, since last year, high-purity quartz sand has been in a tight balance between supply and demand, once there was a "sand hard to find" market, prices also rose.

According to agency data, the price of domestic high-purity quartz sand has risen from 50,000 yuan/ton in mid-2022 to about 170,000 yuan/ton in early April 2023, and the price of imported high-purity quartz sand from overseas is as high as 350,000 to 400,000 yuan/ton.

Quartz Co., Ltd. is the third enterprise in the world and the first enterprise in China to master large-scale high-purity quartz sand production technology. According to the company's 2022 annual report, about 65% of last year's revenue came from the photovoltaic industry, about 19% from semiconductors, and about 16% from light source products. The high prosperity and high demand of the

photovoltaic industry have exploded the company's performance in a straight line. Over the past

three years, its performance has created "three consecutive jumps". In 2020 and 2021, it has achieved 190 million and 280 million net profits, and in 2022, it has created a new net profit of 1.05 billion yuan, an increase of 274.48%.

Quartz sand giants simultaneously expand production, but it is difficult to quench the thirst

in a short time. According to agency estimates, the domestic demand for photovoltaic high-purity quartz sand will reach 99,000 tons in 2023, an increase of 72% over the same period last year, and the demand for high-purity quartz sand is expected to reach 141,000 tons in 2024. In 2023, the gap of high-purity quartz sand will be about 12,000-17,000 tons.

Since high-purity quartz sand is so scarce, why is there no major expansion measures in the market?

In fact, high-purity quartz sand is not produced by anyone who wants to produce it.

At present, only three companies in the world, Unimin in the United States, TQC in Norway and Quartz Co., Ltd. in China, have the ability to produce high-purity quartz sand for photovoltaic crucibles.

In addition, although there are many quartz mines in the world, there are not many quartz mines suitable for the production of photovoltaic crucibles. At present, only the mines in the United States and India can meet the global demand for the production of photovoltaic monocrystalline quartz crucibles, which can be said to be in a monopoly position.

Due to the limitation of mineral resources, it is much more difficult to expand the production of high-purity quartz sand than silicon material.

Nevertheless, the recent quartz sand tap has chosen to expand production.

In the annual report, Quartz also said that in 2023, the company will speed up the construction of new projects, 60,000 tons/year high-purity quartz sand project to achieve full production, promote the third phase of the project to speed up the pace of construction, and strive for early completion of production.

On April 21, Quartz announced that it intends to issue convertible bonds of no more than 1.5 billion yuan, which will be used for semiconductor quartz material series projects (Phase III) after deducting the issuance fee. The project will form an annual production capacity of 60000 tons of high-purity quartz sand, 150000 tons of semiconductor grade high-purity quartz sand and 5800 tons of semiconductor quartz products.

In addition, another quartz sand leader, Unimin, also announced the expansion of production on the evening of April 21! The official website

of Unimin announced the expansion plan, aiming to double the production capacity in 2023-2025. According to the specific rules of the company's official website, in order to meet the expected further growth of the market, $200 million will be used to expand production. It is expected that after the completion of the investment, the output will be doubled on the basis of 2022.

However, the production expansion cycle of quartz sand is about 18 months, and it is difficult to solve the current shortage of high-purity quartz sand in a short time!