China often gets criticized by the West these days for adding too much capacity in emerging industries, and a perfect example is the solar energy sector. Not only has the country rapidly added huge amounts of new capacity for solar panel production, but also for the polysilicon that’s the main component used to make solar panels.
作者阳歌，本文仅代表个人观点
Now, it seems that Beijing is finally taking action to try and rectify the situation – by strongly “suggesting” that polysilicon producers cap their utilization rates at half, based on the latest comments from Daqo New Energy Corp. (DQ.US; 688303.SH), one of the nation’s leading producers. Here, we need to do a little reading between the lines since Daqo didn’t say outright it has been ordered to cut production.
中国经常因在新兴行业增加过多产能而受到西方指责，太阳能行业就是一个典型例子。中国不仅迅速新增大量太阳能组件的产能，还增加生产太阳能组件用的主要原料多晶硅。
But somewhat conveniently, the company said it managed to cut its utilization rate to 50% during the third quarter, citing “weak demand.”
现在，北京方面似乎终于行动起来，试图纠正这情况。中国领先的多晶硅生产商之一大全新能源股份有限公司(DQ.US; 688303.SH)的最新说辞显示，北京方面强烈“建议”多晶硅生产商将产能利用率控制在一半。在这里，我们需要做一些字里行间的解读，因为大全能源并没有直接说它被下令减产。
The big background here is that Daqo and its peers have been aggressively adding capacity for their polysilicon production over the last two years, all initially spurred by soaring prices for their product as countries raced to build new solar farms to reduce their carbon footprints. Daqo was quite typical of the group, laying out plans to more than triple its capacity to 300,000 MT per year from around 100,000 MT at the end of 2022 by building a massive new production center in the Inner Mongolia region.
公司表示，由于“需求疲软”，第三季度将产能利用率降至50%，轻易证实了这一点。