Chinese polysilicon manufacturer Niking Technology Co., Ltd. are proceeding with the first development phase which has had an investment of €24 million to reach a capacity of 500 tons by 2009. The company's production was 270 tons in 2008, and is expected to achieve 300 tons in 2009.

The company has previously planned a second phase to add a further 500 tons at a cost of €10 million – but these plans have now been put on hold until the economy recovers.

For the technology aspect, Mr. Gu, General Manager of Niking Technology told ENF that they use a modified Siemens production process to make polysilicon with purity of 7N. They hope to manufacture semiconductor grade polysilicon in the future, but have currently only managed to attain PV level purity levels.

For their reactor designs, the company took on board the technology designs of foreign reactors to create their own design which was sent to a generic Chinese furnace manufacturer to produce under OEM contract. There are currently 6 such reactors in their production line.

Niking does not welcome any long-term sales enquiries as their strategy is to sell all their products on the spot market. Their selling price is currently around €124 per kilogram, but Mr. Gu expects this price to drop during 2009. The company can comfortably support a spot market price as low as €63 per kg, as they have a cost of around €42 per kg, compromising up to €31 per kg production cost plus the cost of the loan interest payments.