The photovoltaic wafer auxiliary materials industry such as silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent is in line with the national industrial policy

1. The industry and general situation of photovoltaic silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent

Photovoltaic wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent are subdivided products of electronic chemicals, which have the characteristics of lubrication, cooling, and cleaning in the silicon wafer cutting process, which can effectively improve the yield of silicon wafer production.

According to the relevant provisions of the Industrial Classification of the National Economy (GB/T 4754-2017), the industry of silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent is classified as electronic special material manufacturing industry, and the industry code is C3985. Silicon wafer cutting fluid and silicon wafer cleaning agent belong to the "3.3.6 Special Chemicals and Materials Manufacturing" industry of "3.3 Advanced Petrochemical New Materials" and "3.3.6 Special Chemicals and Materials Manufacturing" of the "Classification of Strategic Emerging Industries" issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, and belong to the field of advanced manufacturing, and the silicon wafer cutting liquid and cleaning agent industry are in line with the national industrial policy.

The "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development" clearly proposes to accelerate the development of strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, new energy vehicles, green intelligent ships, green environmental protection, high-end equipment, and energy electronics.

Photovoltaic silicon wafer is the core raw material for the production of photovoltaic cells, which mainly refers to the high-purity flake silicon formed by the silicon material after the production process of rod, slicing, cleaning and other production links, and the quality of photovoltaic silicon wafers directly affects the photoelectric conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells. Therefore, silicon wafer cutting fluid and silicon wafer cleaning agent are important auxiliary materials in the photovoltaic industry, and the products are mainly used in the silicon rod cutting process, aiming to improve the cutting efficiency, ensure the lubrication and cooling of the silicon wafer during processing, and optimize the production quality of photovoltaic silicon wafers.

2. The industry chain situation

Wafer cutting fluids and cleaning agents are mainly used in the upstream wafer manufacturing process of the photovoltaic industry to achieve lubrication, cooling, cleaning effects and improve production yield.

(1) Upstream field

1) Polysilicon

Polysilicon is the basic raw material for the manufacture of photovoltaic products and is a form of elemental silicon. With the continuous progress of science and technology, the use of polysilicon has also expanded, not only becoming an indispensable basic material in the information industry, but also an ideal medium for converting solar energy into light energy.

2) Silicon wafers

Silicon wafers are the core raw materials for semiconductor manufacturing. Polycrystalline silicon materials are made into polycrystalline silicon ingots by ingots, or monocrystalline silicon seed crystals are added after melting, and monocrystalline silicon rods are made by the straight-pull method or suspension zone melting method. Silicon ingots and rods are processed into silicon wafers by mortar steel wire or diamond wire cutting.

In recent years, the rapid development of the mainland photovoltaic installed terminal market has effectively stimulated the demand for raw materials including silicon wafers in the upstream of the industry, making the scale of the domestic photovoltaic silicon wafer market develop rapidly. In 2023, the national output will exceed 622GW, a year-on-year increase of 67.5%.

The photovoltaic wafer auxiliary materials industry such as silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent is in line with the national industrial policy

(2) Midstream

1) Cells

Cells can convert light energy into electrical energy. Cells are processed by a series of processes such as texturing, diffusion, etching, and cell processing requires high technical capabilities and capital investment. Depending on the silicon substrate, crystalline silicon cells are divided into P-type cells and N-type cells.

The PERC technology of P-type cells is the mainstream technology of crystalline silicon cells, and the efficiency is generally more than 22%. N-type technology is the next generation of crystalline silicon cell technology, which has the characteristics of short process, high conversion efficiency, anti-attenuation, and low temperature coefficient, which is conducive to increasing photovoltaic power generation capacity and reducing power generation costs, and has broad development prospects.

2) Components

A module is a photovoltaic power generation device formed by connecting a certain number of cells in series and parallel and tightly encapsulating them. Modules are the most important equipment of the photovoltaic power generation system, which determines the cost of photovoltaic power generation to a large extent.

(3) Downstream fields

The downstream of photovoltaic is the installation and service of photovoltaic application system. The photovoltaic power generation system has no rotating equipment, high reliability, easy maintenance, high modularity and flexible scale, which is suitable for large-scale centralized ground power station applications and small-capacity distributed applications.

In recent years, driven by policy guidance and market demand, the new installed capacity and cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic in mainland China have grown rapidly, and have ranked first in the world for many consecutive years.

3. The main barriers of the industry

(1) Technical barriers

The industry is a technology-intensive industry, and its technical barriers are mainly reflected in:

1) Product R&D capabilities: The formulation and production process of auxiliary materials such as silicon wafer cutting liquid and cleaning agent need to be continuously optimized to adapt to the development of silicon wafer cutting technology, which requires enterprises to have strong R&D capabilities, long-term technology accumulation and product innovation, and its key technologies have strong exclusivity.

2) Complexity of production process: The production of auxiliary materials such as silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent involves the selection of raw materials, precise control of formulas, optimization of reaction conditions, etc., which requires enterprises to have high process technology and production management capabilities.

3) Stability of product quality: The performance of auxiliary materials such as silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent directly affects the cutting effect and quality of silicon wafers, so the stability of products is extremely high, and enterprises need to establish a strict quality control system to ensure the consistency and reliability of products. Therefore, there are high technical barriers in this industry.

(2) Customer barriers

The industry has a high concentration of customers and is closely integrated with wafer manufacturers, and its customer barriers are mainly reflected in:

1) Personalized needs: Due to the differences in production processes and technical requirements of different wafer manufacturers, auxiliary materials such as wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent usually need to be upgraded and adjusted in accordance with the customer's production technology iteration.

2) Certification and quality standards: Suppliers of auxiliary materials such as wafer cutting fluids and cleaning agents need to meet a series of stringent production tests and quality assessments of wafer manufacturers, and the verification cycle is long.

3) Long-term partnerships: Wafer manufacturers often prefer to work with suppliers who have established long-term and stable relationships to ensure the stability of the supply chain and product quality.

4) High switching costs: For wafer manufacturers, replacing suppliers of auxiliary materials such as wafer cutting fluids and cleaning agents requires re-evaluation and testing of new products, resulting in high switching costs and time investment. As a result, there are high customer barriers in the industry.

(3) Financial barriers

With the continuous iterative update of the production process of silicon wafer manufacturing enterprises and the continuous growth of demand, higher requirements are put forward for the financial strength of enterprises in the silicon wafer auxiliary materials industry, which is mainly reflected in:

1) Wafer auxiliary material suppliers need to invest in production equipment and R&D for a long time to maintain competitive advantages in product quality, production efficiency and R&D strength.

2) Wafer cutting fluids, cleaning agents and other auxiliary materials consume a large amount of silicon wafer manufacturing, and silicon wafer manufacturing enterprises usually have a certain account period for sales collection. Therefore, suppliers who do not have economies of scale, technical advantages and insufficient financial strength will be phased out, and enterprises that intend to enter this type of industry will face high financial barriers.

For more industry information, please refer to the "2024-2030 Photovoltaic Wafer Auxiliary Materials Industry Market Research and Development Trend Forecast Report" of PwC Consulting, at the same time, PwC Consulting also provides special market research projects, industry research reports, industrial chain consulting, project feasibility study reports, specialized and special new small giant certification, market share reports, 15th Five-Year Plan, post-project evaluation reports, BP business plans, industrial maps, industrial planning, blue white papers, national manufacturing single champion enterprise certification, IPO fundraising feasibility study, IPO working paper consulting and other services.

The photovoltaic wafer auxiliary materials industry such as silicon wafer cutting fluid and cleaning agent is in line with the national industrial policy

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