On December 9, The Star Market Daily reported (Reporter Qiu Siyu) that Daqo Energy held a performance briefing for the third quarter of 2024 today (December 9).

At the meeting, a reporter from The Star Market Daily asked questions regarding the impact topics related to the self-discipline convention but did not receive a direct response. Daqo Energy's General Manager Zhu Wengang told the reporter from The Star Market Daily, "The company will continue to focus on its main business, maintain sufficient cash, keep a low debt-to-asset ratio, prudently expand production, actively adapt to market changes, and scientifically adjust production modes."

Since the beginning of this year, various links in the photovoltaic industry chain still maintain an imbalance between supply and demand, with major companies facing a double hit on performance and stock prices. In the first three quarters, Daqo Energy achieved a revenue of 6.005 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 53.37%; the net income attributable to the parent company was -1.099 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 121.49%.

In a situation of oversupply, cost reduction and efficiency improvement strategies remain the core path actively sought by enterprises. Zhu Wengang told the reporter from The Star Market Daily that Daqo Energy will focus on four aspects for cost reduction and efficiency improvement work: first, optimizing the procurement and supply model for raw and auxiliary materials, activating competitive mechanisms to ensure the quality and cost of raw materials from the supply chain; second, optimizing process flows to reduce energy consumption; third, adjusting the N-type material ratio of polysilicon products through collaborative research to lower overall energy consumption; fourth, improving cost control precision through digital manufacturing. It is evident that reducing energy consumption is a key point in two aspects.

The company also stated in its third quarterly report that through improving production efficiency and reducing energy consumption, it effectively controlled production costs. Its unit cost for the third quarter of 2024 was 48.83 yuan/kg, an increase of 6.3% compared to the previous quarter, attributed to the shutdown of some outdated devices, a decrease in production compared to the previous period, and an increase in unit fixed costs. The unit cash cost was 38.93 yuan/kg, a decrease of 3.1% compared to the previous period, due to the increase in production efficiency of operating devices.

In terms of the N-type material ratio, Daqo Energy produced 0.033 million tons of N-type polysilicon in the third quarter, accounting for 75.1% of the total output during that period; the sales of N-type polysilicon were 0.033 million tons, accounting for 79.4% of the total sales during that period.

Regarding the fourth quarter production, Daqo Energy indicated that the expected production for the fourth quarter is between 0.031 million tons and 0.034 million tons, with a full-year expected production of 0.2 million tons to 0.21 million tons for 2024.

In the future business planning topics, Xu Xiang, vice director of Daqo Energy, stated to the "Star" reporter that the company's business will extend upwards to the raw material industrial silicon and auxiliary material round silicon chips of polycrystalline silicon; horizontally, it will expand to semiconductor polycrystalline silicon.

In terms of operational planning, Xu Xiang mentioned, "The company will continue to optimize parameters and processes for key energy consumption links and critical equipment, adjusting the procurement standard indicators for raw and auxiliary materials, aiming to continuously increase the proportion of N-type silicon materials, improve single furnace output, and reduce energy consumption."