China’s Linton Technologies And 10 GW Wafer Machinery Order From India

In an announcement over the weekend, Chinese solar equipment maker, China’s Linton Technologies Group, which is among the largest makers of machinery to build solar wafers, announced a large order win in India. Coming just at the conclusion of the REI 2024 expo in India, the firm said the order for machinery to make upto 10 GW of solar wafers was from a large Indian conglomerate. Linton also had a representation at the REI expo. The firm is a designated national high-tech enterprise in China with a focus on PV equipment and semiconductors.

Linton has factories in China, the US and Vietnam giving it the option to supply  machinery from outside China, to circumvent any restrictions on Chinese imports. Although India hasn’t really gone after Chinese capital goods, just finished goods like solar modules and cells. There has been in fact been murmurs of Chinese restrictions on export of machinery to other markets that could possibly undermine China’s dominance of the solar supply chain. The Linton deal, to that extent, seems to indicate that at least this threat is no longer an overhang on manufacturing plans.

So which Indian firm could have placed the order? The obvious answer in this case would seem to be the Reliance group, which has not only progressed well on its stated goal to roll out every part of the solar supply chain, with modules and cells expected to roll out early next year. Reliance executives we spoke to indicated that the Wafer and Ingot plans would fructify by 2026-27, making this order perfectly times for those deadlines.

Presently, Adani Enterprises Ltd is the only producer of wafers in India. Adani has also made steady progress with its Ingot manufacturing plans, making it the most integrated producer of solar modules for now. The only other firm of significance that has announced wafer plans, Waaree Energies, has already indicated that its plans are progressing ahead on schedule, which would mean it is already done with machinery orders. Either way, keep watching this space for a definite answer.