PVTIME – Today, Wuxi DK Electronic Materials Co., Ltd. (stock code 300842), a Chinese company principally engaged in the research and development, production, and sale of new electronic paste and other electronic materials, officially became the first producer of conductive silver paste to listed its shares on Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Growth Enterprise Market (GEM or ChiNext). DKEM publicly offered 25 million shares, including 25 million IPO shares offered at 15.96 yuan per share and raised funds of 399 million yuan. The post-public-offering share capital of DK is 100 million in total.
The funds raised this time will primarily be used for the relocation and expansion of a project with an annual output of 500 tons of conductive silver pastes (estimated of 196 million yuan), the construction of a R&D Center (estimated 105 million yuan), and to supplement working capital (estimated 50 million yuan).
Established in 2011, Wuxi DK Electronic Materials Co., Ltd.’s is currently a leading suppliers of conductive silver pastes for PV cells and has actively developed and promoted many products such as conductive adhesives for solar modules, packaging, assembly of materials in the field of semiconductor, and display lighting. DKEM’s conductive silver paste is used in the production of conventional mono/polycrystalline solar cells, black solar cells, and PERC mono/polycrystalline solar cells, etc.
As a key raw material in the production of solar photovoltaic cells, conductive silver paste directly affects the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells and the power generation of photovoltaic modules. Previously, due to high technical barriers, large capital investment, fast product replacement, and stringent quality requirements, the conductive silver paste market was dominated by overseas suppliers such as DuPont, Heraeus, Samsung SDI, and Giga Solar. An obvious weak link in China’s developing photovoltaic industry.
It is reported that Dr. Shi Weili, who returned from the United States in 2010, founded DKEM with the help of his core R&D team. For three years, Dr. Shi and his team of world-class scientists, engineers, experts, and innovators concentrated on developing conductive silver paste for the PV industry, not eager to bring products to market.
“Everything was more difficult than expected, but the challenges were also in our imagination. There were no shortcuts to developing conductive silver products, we had to overcome many core barriers to obtaining raw materials such as glass power, silver power, organic carrier, and so forth,” Dr. Shi expressed with emotion during his interview with Century New Energy Network.
In the following years, DKEM gradually formed a market-oriented, customer-driven R&D system which contributed to the development and mastering of key manufacturing technologies, enhancing its products’ competitiveness and helping it surpass some overseas brands in terms of performance and quality. DKEM’s core patent has received the “China Patent Excellence Award” issued by the State Intellectual Property Office for its contribution in repeatedly helping its module manufacturing clients break cell conversion efficiency and module power records.
In 2019, DKEM’s operating income reached 1.29 billion yuan achieving a net profit of 70.7042 million yuan with a majority of the revenue coming from the sales of its core conductive silver pastes series including the DK91, DK92, DK93, and DECA.
In terms of product development direction for the next three years, DKEM said it would continue to focus on the R&D of nanomaterial synthesis, ink/paste/adhesive formulation, narrow line printing, thin film coating, and device fabrication; accelerate the localization and technological innovation of core materials; continue to strengthen the leading position of conductive silver paste for P-type PERC and N-type TOPCon cells; and engage in the business of developing low-temperature conductive silver paste for heterojunction HJT cells and shingled modules.
In terms of customer development, while maintaining existing customers, DKEM will actively seek other well-known downstream customers with large volume and high demands and further improve its market share and industry visibility through various marketing strategies.
The emerging electronic materials industry is closely related to the transformation of China’s energy structure and one that encouraged and supported by the state. In the next decade, China’s PV industry is about to enter the era grid parity and showing huge room for growth. With artificial intelligence, 5G, and the Internet of Things as driving forces, a new wave of technological revolution based on semiconductor technology is imminent, and is not possible without the support of high performing electronic materials.
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