Zhonghuan Solar cut official pricings for wafers

On June 29, Zhonghuan released latest pricings for mono-Si wafers:

Cell and module manufacturers kept utilization rates low amid recent weak market demand. Zhonghuan trimmed down pricings for G1 and M6 wafers by RMB 0.41/W and G12 wafers by 0.69/W, indicating at least 8% of price decreases from the end of May and even lower than May 20’s level.

Following several rounds of price increases, the first-ever price decrease from Zhonghuan, doubled with the unchanged pricings from Longi, shows that the wafer sector has received pressures from cell and module makers’ low utilization rates. However, it appears that the polysilicon segment has no inventory pressure, allowing polysilicon prices to stabilize at current levels, as lowered wafer prices will not affect the polysilicon sector too soon.

According to the announcement from Zhonghuan, calculated with 22.8% of conversion efficiency, costs for G12 mono-Si wafers with a thickness of 170μm is RMB 0.749/W, an additional reduction compared to costs of standard wafers.