OCI Holdings will enter the solar wafer business by acquiring 65% equity in a wafer plant located in Vietnam.
OCI Holdings said on the 13th that its wholly owned subsidiary OCI TerraSus established a special purpose company, OCI ONE, in Singapore and will acquire 65% equity in a Vietnamese wafer plant of a global solar corporations.
The wafer plant is a 2.7-gigawatt (GW) per year facility under construction by Elite Solar Power Wafer Co. Ltd in Vietnam and is scheduled for completion at the end of this month. After test runs, the plant will produce Non-PFE solar wafers as early as early next year.
The total investment in this project is $120 million (about 170 billion won). Of that, the investment amount for 65% equity in OCI ONE is about $78 million (about 110 billion won). If an additional $40 million (about 56 billion won) is invested in the wafer plant, the business can be expanded to 5.4 GW within six months.
OCI Holdings plans to use all of OCI TerraSus's polysilicon for this wafer business to produce Non-PFE wafers. Based on this vertical integration, OCI Holdings aims to achieve two goals simultaneously: strengthening competitiveness and improving profitability.
Lee Woo-hyun, chair of OCI Holdings, said, "Through this strategic investment, OCI Holdings will move closer to completing a Non-PFE supply chain that facilitates exports to the United States," adding, "Going forward, OCI Holdings will continue to collaborate with local corporations in Southeast Asia to strengthen its foothold in the global solar market."