Wacker Chemie Lone Non-Chinese Firm in Top 10 Polysilicon Manufacturers List

Polysilicon, the first manufactured input before a solar module actually ships out from a factory, defines Chinese dominance of the sector like nothing else perhaps. The energy intensive manufacturing process has ensured Chinese firms have no real threat to their dominance, considering the low power prices and a premptive shift to green energy under way to power operations.  

Notably, nine of the world’s top ten polysilicon producers are based in China, with German manufacturer Wacker as the sole non-Chinese player. According to Johannes Bernreuter, author of the Polysilicon Market Outlook 2025 and head of Bernreuter Research, China’s polysilicon output accounted for 93.5 percent of the global production in 2024, reflecting the country’s dominance in this sector.

Among these producers, the four largest Chinese companies - Tongwei, GCL Technology, Daqo New Energy, and Xinte Energy - controlled 65 percent of the polysilicon market in 2024. Bernreuter also noted that these four companies held about two-thirds of the large polysilicon inventories in China at the end of 2024. It should be mentioned here that the Chinese firms have been pressured in the past year to find a way to prevent overcapacity or a supply glut that has led to low prices through the year. Those efforts have been met with limited success so far.  

Here is a look at the top ten polysilicon manufacturers shaping the energy transition globally:

#1 Tongwei (China)

Tongwei’s subsidiary Sichuan Yongxiang began polysilicon production in Leshan, Sichuan, with a modest 1,000 MT capacity in 2008, aiming for 10,000 MT. Oversupply delayed this goal until 2015 when capacity expanded from 4,000 MT to 15,000 MT, followed by further growth to 20,000 MT in 2017.

With new plants in Leshan and Baotou, Inner Mongolia, Tongwei became the world’s largest producer by 2020, growing its capacity nearly tenfold from 96,000 MT to about 910,000 MT today.

Factory locations: Leshan, Sichuan (290,000 MT); Baotou, Inner Mongolia (345,000 MT); Baoshan, Yunnan (275,000 MT)

Production capacity: Approx. 910,000 MT

#2 GCL Technology Holdings (China)

Based in Hong Kong, GCL Group covers the entire solar value chain via controlling shares in GCL Technology (polysilicon and wafers), GCL System Integration Technology (solar cells and modules), and GCL New Energy (solar farms). 

Since 2020, GCL Technology fully embraced fluidized-bed reactor technology for granular polysilicon production, scaling capacity to 480,000 MT across four sites. This resurgence returned GCL close to its former leading rank from 2013-2015.

Factory locations: Xuzhou, Jiangsu (160,000 MT); Leshan, Sichuan (100,000 MT); Baotou, Inner Mongolia (100,000 MT); Ordos, Inner Mongolia (120,000 MT)

Production capacity: 480,000 MT

#3 Daqo New Energy (China)

Originally based in Chongqing, Daqo expanded to a new 5,000 MT plant in Shihezi, Xinjiang, in 2011/2012 amid oversupply, aiming to lower costs. 

Capacity grew steadily to 20,000 MT by 2017 and surged to 80,000 MT by 2019. A second factory opened in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, in 2023. Equity holders from Daqo Group, a prominent electrical equipment manufacturer, own 35.4 percent of the company’s shares.

Factory locations: Shihezi, Xinjiang (150,000 MT); Baotou, Inner Mongolia (200,000 MT)

Production capacity: Approx. 350,000 MT

#4 Xinte Energy (China)

TBEA’s subsidiary was the first polysilicon producer in Xinjiang in 2009, starting with 1,500 MT capacity, reaching 100,000 MT by 2022. Supported by a captive coal-fired power plant, they added two more 100,000 MT plants in Baotou and Zhundong by 2023. Xinte Energy went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2015.

Factory locations: Urumqi, Xinjiang (100,000 MT); Baotou, Inner Mongolia (100,000 MT); Zhundong, Xinjiang (100,000 MT)

Production capacity: 300,000 MT

#5 Qinghai Lihao Qingneng (China)

Founded in April 2021, Lihao Qingneng quickly became a key new player. Led by former Tongwei polysilicon director Duan Yong and backed by investors including Aiko and Chint, the company launched a 50,000 MT plant in Xining, Qinghai, in July 2022. Rapid expansion brought capacity to 130,000 MT by late 2023.

Factory location: Xining, Qinghai province

Production capacity: 130,000 MT

#6 Xinjiang East Hope New Energy (China)

Part of the East Hope Group, already operating aluminum and silicon smelters in Xinjiang, this subsidiary began polysilicon production with 20,000 MT in 2017. Capacity expanded to 210,000 MT by 2024, though utilization remained low despite low electricity costs from a captive coal plant. 

A second 125,000 MT plant in Shizuishan, Ningxia, completed in May 2024, started trial production in October 2025.

Factory locations: Zhundong, Xinjiang (210,000 MT); Shizuishan, Ningxia (125,000 MT)

Production capacity: 335,000 MT

#7 Asia Silicon (China)

Founded by a former Suntech Power executive, Asia Silicon began with 1,000 MT capacity in Xining, Qinghai in 2008. Benefiting from hydropower, the company expanded capacity to 20,000 MT by 2018, then further increased to 120,000 MT by 2022, shutting down the original factory.

Factory location: Xining, Qinghai province

Production capacity: 100,000 MT

#8 Wacker Chemie AG (Germany/USA)

Wacker pioneered polysilicon production, developing the Siemens process in the 1950s. The company expanded solar-grade capacity significantly after a 2006 IPO, opening new plants in Germany and the USA. 

Wacker was the world’s largest polysilicon producer in 2016 before Tongwei overtook it in 2020 but remains the leading semiconductor-grade polysilicon manufacturer.

Factory locations: Burghausen, Bavaria (65,000 MT); Nünchritz, Saxony (20,000 MT); Charleston, Tennessee (15,000 MT)

Production capacity: Approx. 80,000 MT

#9 Hongyuan Energy Technology (China)

Starting as a maker of grinding machines and wire saws for the solar and semiconductor sectors, Wuxi Shangji Automation expanded into solar wafer production in 2019, then cell and module production. It rebranded as Hoyuan Green Energy and founded Hongyuan Energy Technology in 2022 to enter polysilicon manufacturing. 

The company started a 50,000 MT polysilicon plant in Baotou, Inner Mongolia in 2023 and increased capacity to 60,000 MT in 2024.

Factory location: Baotou, Inner Mongolia
Production capacity: 60,000 MT

#10 Xinjiang Goens Energy Technology (China)

Formerly part of GCL Technology, Xinjiang Goens Energy Technology launched a 48,000 MT polysilicon plant in Xinjiang’s Zhundong Economic Zone in 2018 and expanded to 65,000 MT in 2021. After several ownership changes in 2023 and early 2025, the company suspended production in late 2025.

Factory location: Zhundong Economic and Technological Development Zone, Xinjiang

Production capacity: 65,000 MT