China expands polysilicon production

China is investing billions in new factories for the production of polysilicon, the base material for solar panels. According to market analysts, polysilicon prices will remain high until the summer. By 2023, however, they could drop „to a historic low,“ Bloomberg quotes one expert as saying. According to the report, the supply of solar modules will increase massively over the next few years, causing prices to fall. At the end of 2021, the price of polysilicon was still at a 10-year-high. After three Chinese manufacturers opened new factories with a total capacity of 160,000 tons per year – more than a quarter of the previous global capacity – prices already fell by 17 percent, according to Bloomberg.