On 14 October, Japan's TOYO SOLAR announced that it will build a new 2GW solar cell manufacturing plant in Ethiopia based on the country's favourable investment policy, tariff policy and sufficient hydropower supply.
Located in Hawassa, Ethiopia, the 31,500-square-metre project, with an estimated investment of $60 million, will be financed with internal resources and advances.
Currently signed, plant lease agreement. Renovations are expected to begin in November 2024, with production beginning by the end of the first quarter of 2025. 880 jobs will be created including product manufacturing and building construction.
Currently, Ethiopia generates about 90 per cent of its electricity from hydropower, 8 per cent from wind power and 2 per cent from thermal energy.
According to TOYO SOLAR's H1 2024 financial results announced at the end of August this year, the company reported H1 revenues of $138.1 million, a gross margin of 19.3%, a net income of $19.6 million (H1 2023 loss of $1.9 million), and a total of 985MW shipped in the first half of the year.
TOYO Solar focuses primarily on the U.S. market, supplying solar wafers, cells and modules to the U.S. market. In July of this year, TOYO Solar completed a business combination with Blue World Acquisition Corporation and TOYO common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market.
It is worth mentioning that its August earnings report noted that annual shipments were expected to reach 2.5GW at the beginning of the year, based on demand for N-Type Topcon solar modules (mainly in the US market) and the strong brand reputation of TOYO Solar's Vietnamese subsidiary Sunergy. Due to the impact of the US double reverse on Southeast Asia (which may also affect TOYO SOLAR even though it is targeting the Chinese PV industry), its annual shipments have been scaled back to 1.9GW from 2.5GW set at the beginning of the year.
And with this detour to Ethiopia, the company also noted that it is exempting Ethiopian bifacial solar cells from tariffs under Section 201 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. Cells output from the plant will be used in its US module plant (a new 2GW/year solar module manufacturing plant is expected to be built in the US in Q4 2024).
Source : https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/pP7-RaiT4mkZYo2ofysklg