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| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | January 03, 2019 |
Starting from this week, InfoLink will add regional module and PV glass prices on our website.
Poly Price
As the New Year Holidays just ended, polysilicon prices remained unchanged this week. Manufacturers will prepare to stock before the Chinese New Year in January. Wafer makers also maintain a capacity utilization rate like last month’s, with some mono wafer makers starting to put into production. Therefore, the overall polysilicon market still sees stable supply and demand relationship.
While Korean polysilicon makers will mostly be conducting maintenance in January, Chinese manufacturers will slowly put into more production of new-added capacities. As a consequence, overall, the polysilicon market will witness a balanced demand in January, it’s forecasted that the new quotes in price will as the lowest price of late-December. Price of multi wafer use polysilicon didn’t decline significantly either and it should stay flat at over RMB 70/kg in January.
Wafer Price
This week’s wafer prices maintained at late-2018’s level. For multi wafers, following the stable cell prices, multi wafer prices remained flat at RMB 2.05-2.1/piece.
The mono wafer market continued to experience strong demand this month. The two top-tier mono wafer makers have kept increasing capacities. In addition, the mono cell market also continued to witness strong demand in January, with the price staying flat. Manufacturers’ stock preparation before the Chinese New Year has effectively supported demand for January, but whether demand will begin to drop in February will be a more important turning point recently.
Cell Price
As the New Year Holidays just ended, cell prices remained unchanged this week. Only overseas bi-facial cell prices have slightly increased.
The SE-PERC cell market in both China and the overseas continued to witness strong demand in January. With manufacturers’ stock preparation before the Chinese New Year, SE-PERC cell is still in slight short supply. Price of cell with an efficiency of over 21.5% reached RMB 1.28-1.31/W in China and US$ 0.162-0.165/W in the overseas.
Multi cell price also remained flat at RMB 0.86-0.9/W and US$ 0.108-0.115/W.
Rising cell price has put pressure on module makers under the current module price level. As a result, prices of mono PERC and multi cells may have reached a high point.
Module Price
Order visibility is better for PERC modules in Q1. Meanwhile, order prices have slightly increased in China and the overseas. But overall, 310 PERC module is still priced at RMB 2.2-2.3/W and US$ 0.28-0.30/W. On the other hand, some top-tier manufacturers are promoting larger size wafers or half-cut modules, pushing up the demand to 60-cell 315W and 72-cell 380-390W modules in the high-efficiency markets like the US and Australia.
In the aspect of multi modules, judging from the recent bidding price, top-tier vertically-integrated manufacturers can have higher quote in prices because of better order condition in Q1. However, many module makers are not in full order status for multi modules, leading to lower trading price of conventional multi modules in Q1.
Overall, the module market will continue to witness strong demand before the Chinese New Year, but whether demand will begin to drop after the Chinese New Year will depend on China’s new target release.
PV Glass Price
Due to higher cost and better demand, PV glass prices have increased substantially in 4Q18. But the price rise has slowed down by the end of last month as the market turns more conservative toward 1Q19. Recent price remained flat at RMB 23-24 per square meter.