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| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | October 12, 2017 |
As long weekends just ended in China, Taiwan, and South Korea, prices for all sectors of the supply chain remained calm. Prices mostly stayed flat this week in China. The rapid decline of mono-Si PERC demand was the only thing that caught people’s attentions. Module prices in the overseas also fluctuated slightly due to the lower MIP in Europe.
Poly
Quite a few manufacturers are still conducting the equipment maintenance in October. The polysilicon market still witnessed short supply, leading to slightly higher prices in China after the long weekends. But since wafer prices didn’t change, it’s difficult for polysilicon manufacturers to increase prices. Therefore, polysilicon prices remained flat currently. Overseas polysilicon prices slightly increased due to Wacker’s incident, yet, the increase in prices has started to slow down.
Wafer
The overseas markets saw more significant decline in multi-Si wafer prices last week. The average trading price of super high-efficiency multi-Si wafers dropped to US$ 0.695/piece in Taiwan. Prices didn’t change as Taiwanese and South Korean manufacturers just got back to work yesterday. Conventional high-efficiency multi-Si wafer is priced at US$ 0.69/piece, while mono-Si wafer prices remained flat. Both mono and multi-Si wafer prices remained stable in China.
Cell
After the long weekends, conventional cell prices remained stable. The demands of multi-Si cells were strong in China. The average trading price reached RMB 1.75-1.77/W.
Taiwanese cells with higher prices previously have relatively lower cost effectiveness compare to Chinese cells. Following the weaker demand in Europe, fewer orders have been placed with Taiwanese manufacturers, showing a completely different momentum compare to Chinese cell makers. Although the average trading price reached US$ 0.234-0.235/W this week, future price trend will depend on the number of orders confirmed during the PV Taiwan next week. For third-party countries, cell prices stayed flat.
Cell makers care the most about the price decline of PERC cells this week. PERC orders have declined substantially owing to projects closed on 30th September in China and weaker demand caused by lower MIP in Europe. Module makers have started to lower cell prices due to weaker PERC module demand. This week, PERC cell prices slightly declined in China and Taiwan. For cells with efficiency more than 21%, prices have dropped to US$ 0.29-0.31/W in Taiwan and RMB 2.3/W in China.
Module
Despite the strong prices for mid-to-upstream sectors, module prices can only stay flat following the weak module demand. The MIP has been lowered in Europe in October and it will be lowered further on January 1st 2018. The progress of projects in Europe has slowed down, leading to lower prices. Meanwhile, the installation boom will be coming to an end in the US as the “Section 201” becomes clearer. Therefore, module prices have declined slightly.