Exclusive-China polysilicon firms plan $7 billion fund to shut a third of industry capacity

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese producers of polysilicon, a building block for solar panels, are in talks to create a 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) fund to acquire and shut down roughly a third of production capacity and restructure part of the loss-making sector, GCL Technology Holdings said. The top polysilicon producer told Reuters on Thursday plans were being discussed to acquire and shut at least 1 million metric tons of lower-quality polysilicon capacity. "It is sort of like the OPEC of the polysilicon industry, wherein total supply for a specified timeframe has to be agreed by the central committee and production quotas to be allocated to producers," GCL's investor relations director Jun Zhu said.