Tokuyama Corp. (4043) said Thursday that it will spend 111 billion yen at home and abroad to increase production of polycrystalline silicon, which is used to make wafers for chips and solar cells.

The company expects to boost its annual output capacity to 31,000 tons in 2015, double the projected level for 2013.

Polycrystalline silicon Tokuyama will build a second plant at a Malaysian site for about 100 billion yen. Expected to go onstream in January 2015, this plant will be capable of churning out 13,800 tons a year. The firm decided to increase its investment at the site, where it had just broken ground on the first plant that is slated to produce 6,200 tons a year starting in autumn 2013.

Plans also call for spending about 11 billion yen to expand a factory in Yamaguchi Prefecture. This facility will be able to produce 11,000 tons a year of polycrystalline silicon in spring 2013, up about 20% from the current level.

According to some forecasts, demand for polycrystalline silicon for solar cells will continue to grow by about 20% a year through 2015.