On January 8, the Star Daily reported (Reporter Wu Xuguang) that on the evening of January 7, Juhua Materials disclosed an announcement stating that it decided to extend the scheduled usable status date for the fundraising projects "Jiangsu Delijun New Materials Co., Ltd. High-end Photovoltaic Electronic Materials Base Project" (hereinafter referred to as the "Delijun Project") and "Special Electronic Functional Materials and Metal Powder Material R&D Center Construction Project" (hereinafter referred to as the "Metal Powder Project").

Regarding the delay of some initial fundraising projects, today (January 8), a representative from Juhua Materials' secretary office stated that the delay of the Delijun Project was mainly affected by the hard soil at the construction site, causing the project to be postponed; the construction of the Metal Powder Project has basically been completed, but considering the introduction of new equipment and debugging, the project construction pace will be moderately slowed.

According to the company's announcement, the scheduled usable status date for the "Delijun Project" has been postponed from February 2025 to June 2025; the scheduled usable status date for the "Metal Powder Project" has been postponed from December 2024 to June 2025.

As of December 31, 2024, the fundraising project use of the company shows that the total investment in the Delijun Project amounted to 97.5577 million yuan, with a completion progress of 33.24%; the total investment in the Metal Powder Project amounted to 60.9053 million yuan, with a completion progress of 50.19%.

"In fact, the project is delayed by 4-6 months, which will not have a substantial impact on the overall project output in the later stage," explained a representative from the company's secretary office.

Some projects have completed more than fifty percent of their progress.

Juhua Materials was listed on the A-share market in December 2022, raising more than 3 billion yuan in its initial public offering, which is intended for the construction project of an annual production of 3,000 tons of conductive Silver paste (Phase I) and to supplement working capital. Among them, the company used 0.415 billion yuan of oversubscribed funds to invest in the Delijun Project and the Metal Powder Project.

At that time, Juhe Materials stated that front Silver paste is a key material for photovoltaic Solar Cells, which significantly impacts their photoelectric conversion efficiency, and the upstream production technology of conductive Silver paste, including Silver nitrate and electronic-grade Silver powder, has long been monopolized by foreign companies. Based on these factors, the company's subsidiary Jiangsu Delijuxin New Materials Co., Ltd. decided to construct an annual production and R&D project for 3,000 tons of electronic-grade Silver powder, along with supporting public works, tank areas, warehouses, and auxiliary facilities.

Regarding the construction progress of the company's 3,000-ton conductive Silver paste project (Phase I), the aforementioned company secretary office personnel introduced that the project is divided into two phases: 1,300 tons and 1,700 tons. Currently, the entire project has been completed and is in production.

Juhe Materials is a high-tech enterprise mainly engaged in the R&D, production, and sales of new electronic pastes, focusing on the New Materials and New energy industries. The company's main product is front Silver paste for Solar Cells.

According to the company's 2024 Q3 report, the revenue for the first three quarters grew by 32.80% year-on-year to 9.826 billion yuan, while the Net income attributable to the parent company decreased by 4.47% year-on-year to 0.421 billion yuan, and the Net income excluding non-recurring items grew by 7.02% year-on-year to 0.433 billion yuan. Among them, Q3 revenue decreased by 4.87% year-on-year to 3.061 billion yuan, and Net income attributable to the parent company declined by 28.87% year-on-year to 0.122 billion yuan, affected by the decline in Solar Cells production, leading to a quarter-on-quarter decrease in shipments.

Accelerate the layout of Copper paste industrialization products.

The reporter from the Star Daily noticed that with the recent rise in Silver prices, the processes of reducing and eliminating Silver are becoming important directions for technological R&D in the photovoltaic industry, and the Copper paste industry is expected to develop further.

Among them, Risen Energy recently announced that testing and mass production of Copper paste are currently being carried out on the HJT Solar Cell production line. From the current production line results, the application of Copper paste in HJT products has already achieved relatively good results.

As an upstream material supplier, Juhe Materials is also rapidly laying out Copper paste products.

Recently, OKAMOTO KUNINORI, the chief scientist of Juhua Materials, attended the de-silvering/reduced silver forum and gave a speech, indicating that the company has pioneered the introduction of copper paste products for solar cells by adding antioxidants and sintering agents to copper powder.

A representative from the company’s secretarial office stated today (January 8) to the Star Daily reporter that at this stage, de-silvering in the entire solar energy Industry Chain upstream and downstream is a development trend, which plays an important role in reducing costs and improving efficiency for Batteries. The gradual introduction of copper paste into mass production will further enhance the company's technological advantages, with the potential for cheap Metal substitution and technological premium to improve the gross margin of the company's paste products.

Regarding the progress of the copper paste products at Juhua Materials, the representative from the secretarial office mentioned that the copper paste product is scheduled to be introduced as a new product in the fourth quarter of 2024, and the specific volume will depend on downstream market demand. Currently, the company’s revenue still mainly relies on income from Silver paste products.