Asian Metal: I just received the information from the Asian Photo Voltaic Summit that some major PV manufacturers, such as Wuxi Suntech Company and LDK Solar Co., Ltd are recovering production gradually. Some of them are producing at full capacity. Recently, they received more orders from domestic end-users. What do you think about it?

Mr Li: We are supplying solar cell wafer cutting materials to the major consumers in China, such as LDK and Trina Solar. Maybe there is a signal to show the market is recovering, but the total consumption is still less than half of that last year.

Asian Metal: The producers in Zhengzhou increased their output of green silicon carbide powder, especially for the solar cell wafers production. As they have produced the materials for many years, the downstream consumers usually get the materials from them regularly. When the operating rates increase in downstream producers, they will receive more orders quickly.

Mr Li: I find that the consumption of green silicon carbide powder is less than half of that last year for domestic sales. Before last October, the quality of powder is much inferior to the current materials, but the demand was so strong that the supply kept in tight availability even though all the producers were producing at full capacities. However, nearly all the major suppliers are running part of capacity.

Asian Metal: How about the development of domestic photovoltaic industry?

Mr Li: Two days ago, a photovoltaic industry forum was held in Shuizuishan, Ningxia autonomous region, and all the giant manufacturers participated in it. During the forum, we can see that Ningxia is forging a base of PV. A project being built by Jiangsu Sunshine Company, whose capacity of polysilicon is 1,000tpy. State Group of China has made an investment with a capacity of 5,000tpy for polysilicon, and the construction has been started from March. Zhejiang CHNT will establish a PV power station in Ningxia. From the great investments we see that Ningxia and Shizuishan governments are ready to forge a PV industry belt, which is just the beginning and it has a long way to go.

Asian Metal: That is to say, all the projects have been approved by the governments and will be put into production in the near future?

Mr Li: Two of the projects have been started, and the third one is in trial production.

Asian Metal: What about the technical innovation and upgrade of products? As you just mentioned, the quality of green silicon carbide powder is much better than it was last year, but the sales keep slow.

Mr Li: Yes, the prices have dropped down greatly. The powder technology was first introduced from Japan, and the widely acknowledged company was Shinano, Fujimi and Nanko. However, I think the green silicon carbide powder produced by Chinese enterprises is not worse than the Japanese powder in terms of quality.