GCL-Poly reported 2013 annual polysilicon production increased 36% to approximately 50,440MT, retaining nameplate capacity at 65,000MT resulting in utilisation rates above 75% for the year.

The company reported polysilicon production costs decreased by 13.7% from US$19.7/kg in 2012 to US$17.0/kg at the end of 2013, despite lower utilisation rates at the beginning of the year. Polysilicon ASPs were said to have been US$17.4/kg in 2013.

Revenue from GCL-Poly’s solar material business in 2013 amounted to approximately US$2.26 billion, up 34.1% from the previous year.

GCL-Poly sold 16,329MT of polysilicon not used for in-house solar wafer production, up 29.7% from the previous year.

FBR technology update

The company noted that it had completed its trial run of producing FBR technology based granular polysilicon, however the company noted that it would be continuing to develop and improve the quality of the granular polysilicon before commercial production would begin. High-quality granular polysilicon has been a long-term challenge for FBR technology and meeting high-quality production is essential for its commercial success as pricing and demand would otherwise be limited.

GCL-Poly said in its annual report that it would continue with upgrading the quality of granular silicon in 2014, without providing further details.

Wafer production & sales

GCL-Poly also reported increasing demand for solar wafers in 2013 as annual production capacity increased to 10GW, while 8,634MW of wafers were produced, an increase of 53.6%, compared to the previous year. Wafer production utilisation rates were over 80% by the end of 2013.

Wafer ASPs in 2013 were US$0.21/W, compared to US$0.25/W in 2012. Wafer revenue in 2013 was approximately US$1.89 billion.

The company noted that it was developing N-type monocrystalline wafers, while continuing to focus development efforts on P-type multicrystalline wafers to provide higher conversion efficiencies after the successful ramp and demand for its ‘Multi-Wafer S3’ wafer and second-generation high-efficiency mono-crystalline 'G2' silicon wafer.

Average conversion efficiencies of its G2 and S3 wafers were over 19% and 18% respectively.

GCL-Poly reported sales of approximately 120MW PV modules in 2013, generating revenue of approximately US$69.2 million.

PV Power plants

GCL-Poly reported that it had approximately 100MW PV projects currently under construction and 18MW of US based PV power plants in operation at the end of 2013.

The company said that its PV project pipeline in the US and Puerto Rico stood at 1GW at the end of the year.

During the first half of 2013, GCL-Poly sold the 100% equity interests in a company in California which owned a solar farm project with a planned capacity of approximately 209MW for approximately HK$429.0 million (US$55 million).

In the second half of 2013, GCL-Poly noted that it had sold 100% equity interests in two solar farm project companies with a total planned capacity of approximately 19MW in San Diego County, California. The project had achieved commercial operations in 2013. The revenue from the sale of the solar farms was approximately US$22 million, according to the company.

The GCL Group recorded a net loss of approximately US$85.5 million in 2013, compared to a net loss of approximately US$452 million in 2012.