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| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | August 22, 2019 |
Poly Price
This week’s polysilicon prices maintained their levels from the previous week. How the overall supply and demand for polysilicon will change remains inconclusive until next week, when a battery of quotes on polysilicon and cells is due to be announced.
Polysilicon supply and demand is stable, but with the supply of polysilicon in September expected to exceed its August level, whether demand for polysilicon will improve correspondingly plays a role in determining its price trend for the upcoming month. Meanwhile, the declining availability of low-priced polysilicon for multi-Si wafers has driven a flurry of overseas deals on polysilicon for multi-Si wafers. By and large, the supply and demand for polysilicon for multi-and mono-Si wafer remains balanced.
Wafer Price
This week’s wafer prices showed no marked change. Wafer prices for September will be published next week. Considering the current market condition, mono-Si cell prices, and production lines switching from the mono-Si to multi-Si cell, mono-Si wafer prices are forecast to either decrease or see no change. Zhonghuan Solar and Longi have led second-tier producers to reduce wafer prices, which may stand at around RMB 3.05/piece.
Multi-Si wafer prices this week maintained its level from the previous week. All signs indicate that, in September, multi-Si wafer prices will see no change in China and register a decline of less than USD 0.005/piece for overseas markets. However, if the market fares better than expected in September, multi-Si wafers will be more likely than mono-Si ones to withstand price drops.
Cell Price
Having dropped steeply over the past half-month, PERC cell prices are now close to rock bottom. Although some module producers demand a lower cell price, most cell makers stick with the recent price level on the grounds that the market demand may recover in September, and they are awaiting price negotiations for September that are due to take place next week. Over the current week, Chinese cell prices showed no noticeable change, stabilizing at RMB 0.9–0.92/W, but posted yet another small decline in foreign prices because of a depreciating yuan, selling for USD 0.122–0.125/W.
Cell producers quoted single-sided and bifacial PERC cells at the same price. Yet, since bifacial ones are mostly supplied by top-tier makers, they fetch a slightly higher market price. This price difference resulted from rapid declines in cell prices, and should last only for a short time. So, when the change of cell prices slows down, both single-sided and bifacial cells may again fetch an identical price.
The multi-Si cell price hit rock-bottom this week, hovering at RMB 0.81–0.82/W.
Module Price
With plenty of PV projects due to be tendered in late August, module demand in early September may not be driven as hard as expected, although high season may fall upon the market in mid-September. It appears that the use of mono-Si products will outnumber multi-Si ones in projects that had been auctioned off; however, how module prices will vary in Q4 depends on the timing of demand occurrence.
PV Glass Price
China continues to invite bids for solar porjects. Accordingly, the overall PV demand should be higher in September than in August, and this can push up the price of PV glasses, whose availability is low, However, as module prices have declined a bit these days, the actual market price of PV glasses remains unchanged and may show a clear trend next week.