| Category | |
|---|---|
| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | July 19, 2018 |
Poly
This week’s polysilicon prices saw greater fluctuations in multi-Si wafer use, as polysilicon prices RMB 80/kg has disappeared from the market, and the average spot price once again reached RMB 83/kg. Top-tier poly makers have finished the orders for July, and second-tier ones still have not reached full capacity. This made it difficult to purchase polysilicon for multi-Si use, hence the possible surge in the spot price next week.
In non-Chinese markets, spot demand were higher than in previous weeks, and the lowest price has decreased according to dealt orders. Generally speaking, the average price in non-Chinese markets came to US$ 10/kg.
Wafer
The average wafer price remained at the same level as the previous week, but with the increased demand for multi-Si products, a trend for price increase has started brewing in the market. Although the average price of multi-Si wafer stayed at the similar level as the previous week, the lowest and highest prices both increased in response to the increased demand. However, with a great number of idling capacity, the supply can go up along with the price increase of multi-Si wafers, hence limiting the growing potential of multi-Si wafers prices.
For mono-Si wafers, the demand stayed consistent, but with the slight adjustments by wafer makers, the average price still went down by a small margin. The price trend of mono-Si wafers in the future remains to be determined by whether or not Longi will adjust the price at the end of the month.
Cell
This week, the cell segment continues the situation of the previous week, as multi-Si cells and mono-Si PERC cells both are in a supply-and-demand balance judging from the current utilization rate, while conventional mono-Si cells stays weak in demand.
Judging from the price, with the high demand for multi-Si cells, the average price recently stays at RMB 1.03 – 1.07/W, and US$ 0.133-0.136/W in non-Chinese markets.
Conventional mono-Si cells continued to plummet, resting at RMB 1.05 – 1.1/W this week. China’s conventional mono-Si and multi-Si cell prices reached the same point for the first time since late 2017.
On another note, the large amount of mono-Si PERC orders from the General Top Runner installations will begin in the near future. The PERC cell prices have become consistent, and despite a slight decrease in non-Chinese markets, the average price still remained at RMB 1.22/W and US$ 0.178/W.
Module
A recommendation of safeguard investigation measures in India was released this Monday, suggesting a 25% duty in the first year. However, importing modules with the 25% duty still seems viable because top-tier module makers are able to keep the production costs under US$ 0.24/W. As a result, no Indian-based manufacturers have yet begun stocking up modules. The demand in India still remains to be observed.
Currently, as the demand for non-Chinese multi-Si modules is higher than that of conventional mono-Si ones, multi-Si module prices have become steady, recently averaging RMB 2-2.1/W, and US$ 0.265-0.267/W.
Generally speaking, midstream and upstream polysilicon, wafer, and cells have all touched the bottom. Even midstream and upstream multi-Si products slightly rebounded in prices. Judging from the current utilization rate of modules, the segment is still rather oversupplied compared to the supply chain. Even if the demand from non-Chinese markets is consistent, the huge gap caused by the new Chinese policies still has difficulties to be filled up. In the near future, all types of modules will continue to decrease by a small margin.