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| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | September 06, 2018 |
Poly Price
The polysilicon market is still in wait-and-see mode, but some companies have started to place orders for September. The average trading price of polysilicon reached RMB 90-92/kg for mono-Si wafer use, a slight dip from the previous price. Although some products were traded at a high price, the average trading price is likely to reach RMB 90/kg later on. Judging from the downstream market, since stock have not yet been offloaded for the “Top Runner Program”, demand remained weak for mono-Si products, which in turn led to polysilicon companies’ conservative attitudes toward the market. It’s forecasted that price will continue to decline slightly.
Although polysilicon for multi-Si wafer use is facing a lot of pressure, the average trading price of polysilicon for multi-Si wafer use stayed flat at RMB 85/kg. Future price will depend on whether multi-Si wafer prices will continue to drop or not. Prices will change if multi-Si wafer companies lower their productions due to weaker prices.
As for the polysilicon market in the overseas, both demand and prices are weak. There was still barely any transaction for overseas polysilicon. The highest price quote has been revised downward slightly, but the overall price basically stayed the same.
Wafer Price
Multi-Si wafer prices continued to decline this week. Prices dropped to RMB 2.3/piece in China and US$ 0.31/piece in the overseas markets. However, since polysilicon for multi-Si wafer use witnessed stable prices, multi-Si wafer companies are conservative toward the range for price decline.
The price difference is small for high-efficiency wafers that meet the current market demand. The average trading price is mostly higher than RMB 2.3/piece for top-tier companies. Because demand of multi-Si products continue to drop and wafer companies have already witnessed losses, some top-tier companies plan to slowly lower their utilization rates, hoping to keep the prices at the current level.
The average trading price of overseas multi-Si wafers reached US$ 0.31/piece, with some dropping to lower than US$ 0.31/piece. The overseas wafer manufacturers face the similar situation as the Chinese companies. Although they are facing losses, prices should stay flat after a slight drop in the short term because if prices continue to decline, they will have to reduce productions. As for mono-Si wafers, the overall demand didn’t change much in China, but it declined slightly in the overseas. Prices stayed flat compared to the price quote last month.
Cell Price
Demand of multi-Si cells remained weak. The average trading price of cells with efficiency above 18.6% dropped from RMB 0.93-0.95/W to RMB 0.9-0.93/W for top-tier manufacturers this week. Some second-tier manufacturers even witnessed a price lower than RMB 0.9/W. Due to the significantly lower module prices in Europe, overseas multi-Si cell prices dropped substantially this week, with the prices reaching US$ 0.11-0.118/W. Meanwhile, more and more module makers purchase cells with efficiencies above 18.7% or 18.8% only, widening the price gap between 18.6% and 18.8%.
If the multi-Si cell market continued to see lower prices, multi-Si cell makers are likely to lower their utilization rates in late-September under the circumstances where price decline is limited for wafers and demand is still unclear in India.
Demand of mono-Si PERC cells slightly rebounded in China, with the prices turning stable. This week’s price is flat from last week’s. For the overseas markets, there was a significant change after Europe’s minimum import price (MIP) ended. The average trading price of overseas mono-Si PERC cells reached US$ 0.14-0.145/W, similar to that of Chinese manufacturers, and there still have some room for lower price. For Taiwan, due to the higher costs, prices stayed flat at US$ 0.16-0.163/W, but with barely any transaction.
The end of MIP means cell and module prices in Europe will be almost identical to other markets. Manufacturers with limited price decline in Taiwan and Southeast Asia are slowly losing their European orders, leading to lower utilization rates. The re-shuffle of the European cell demand has huge impact on Taiwanese cell makers. Taiwanese cell companies may witness very low utilization rates during the off-peak selling season in the future.
Module Price
Module prices have turned stable in China, with the prices slightly declining recently. The average trading price reached RMB 1.88-1.92/W for multi-Si and RMB 2.08-2.12/W for mono-Si modules.
Following the end of Europe’s MIP, the European market has become a new battlefield for Chinese modules. The price quote has reached € 0.21-0.22/W (US$ 0.24-0.255/W) for Chinese module makers, much lower than the original € 0.23-0.24/W. Prices of mono-Si PERC modules also declined significantly in Europe. The price quote has dropped to US$ 0.28-0.30/W for Southeast Asian and Chinese manufacturers.
For other markets, PERC module prices continued to drop as cell prices declined. The average trading price of 300W/305W mono-Si PERC modules reached US$ 0.26-0.29 and that of 310W mono-Si modules reached US$ 0.275-0.3/W as 310W module is more often being used recently.