A massive fire explosion occurred at a polysilicon factory in the city of Shihezi in the Xinjiang region, China. The plant produces raw materials for polysilicon used in the manufacturing of solar modules. Hoshine Silicon Industry owns the factory. According to the media, Hoshine provides raw materials to both Daqo and GCL-Poly. Hoshine told the media that the fire broke out at the second phase trial generation line at the complete product packaging workshop of the sealing plant. According to Hoshine, the accident did not have any main effect on the production and operation of the company. The fire was extinguished, and no other casualties were reported. An on-site examination was conducted, and the pollutants mainly were particulate matter and no harmful or toxic gas. The firm said that environmental protection departments proceed to monitor the air quality to make sure that no secondary disaster takes place. The Xinjiang region of China houses various major production facilities necessary to the polysilicon supply chain as it provides 40% of the world's polysilicon. These include Hoshine and other producers of finished polysilicon, like GCL-Poly Energy Holdings, Daqo New Energy, East Hope Group, and Xinte Energy. In July 2020, an explosion at GCL’s Xinjiang production facility saw the prices of polysilicon increase rapidly worldwide. The explosions have resulted in around 50 MT of polysilicon generation capacity going offline, about 10% of the global production capacity. GCL warned its shareholders to expect losses of RMB 1.5 billion in the first half-year (HY) of 2020. The complete loss for the first HY 2020 was RMB 1,924 million. A small explosion was also reported at Daqo's polysilicon plant on July 1, 2020, impacting a production capacity of 6,000 MT. Moreover, a massive flood in South-eastern China forced Tongwei Group to close a quarter of its polycrystalline silicon unit. The average prices have increased speedily over the last year, and the solar industry is undergoing polysilicon shortages. Image Source