China National Materials Group or Sinoma, the parent company of China National Materials, has started construction of a major quartz crucible project in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.

Located in the city’s Xinjin county, the plant will have an annual output capacity of 100,000 quartz crucibles in the initial phase. Production is due to begin at the end of January 2012, said the state-owned company.

The Chengdu plant is expected to become the largest quartz crucible base in southwest China and the output will be used mostly for the production of polycrystalline silicon to meet China’s fast-growing solar power market.