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| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | May 10, 2018 |
Demand remained weak for multi-Si products this week, putting pressures on the overall supply chain of multi-Si products. The multi-Si market saw low trading volume, which made multi-Si wafer prices with more inventories seem even much weaker.
Poly
The multi-Si wafer market not just witnessed rapid decline in prices but also started to adjust future utilization rates. Prices of polysilicon for multi-Si ingot use are difficult to increase further this week; and therefore the average trading price reached RMB 127/kg like last week. However, demand of polysilicon for mono-Si ingot use remained strong, with the price rising to RMB 133/kg. Yet, polysilicon prices for mono-Si wafer use are expecting to reach a maximum as those for multi-Si wafer use started to feel the pressure.
For the overseas markets, although the overseas wafer makers temporarily turned conservative toward polysilicon procurement after Wacker officially resumed the production, there were new orders transacted before overseas wafer makers lower utilization rates. The price slightly increased to US$ 14.6-16.5/kg.
Wafer
After Longi, a leading mono-Si wafer manufacturer, released prices in May, the overall mono-Si wafer prices stayed stable. The average trading price of mono-Si wafers reached RMB 4.45/piece in China and US$ 0.61/piece in the overseas. Low-resistance mono-Si wafer is priced at RMB 4.5/piece in China and US$ 0.62/piece in the overseas.
The market is not optimistic about multi-Si wafers: As the market prefers to purchase mono-Si wafers more, the stock of multi-Si wafers continued to accumulate. It’s rumored that many manufacturers have planned to lower their utilization rates.
However, since multi-Si wafer manufacturers currently witness high level of on-hand inventories, prices are likely to keep declining before utilization rates drop significantly. The average trading price of multi-Si wafers dropped from RMB 3.45/piece last week to RMB 3.35/piece this week in China. The lowest even reached RMB 3.2/piece. Prices dropped from US$ 0.49/piece last week to US$ 0.47/piece this week in the overseas.
This multi-Si wafer price is already lower than the bottom lines for all of the second/third-tier manufacturers, and therefore it’s inevitable to lower utilization rates.
Cell
Mono-Si PERC and conventional mono-Si cells took the chance to increase prices when demand is strong. The average trading price of conventional mono-Si cells increased to RMB 1.52/W in China and US$ 0.208/W in the overseas. Prices of mono-Si PERC reached RMB 1.6-1.62/W in China and more than US$ 0.23/W in the overseas.
Different from mono-Si cell’s strong demand and bargaining power, the multi-Si cell market in the overseas has felt the pressures of lower demand and was willing to give in in prices. The average trading price of cells with efficiencies above 18.6% reached US$ 0.180-0.181/W. Although Chinese cell prices stayed flat at RMB 1.37-1.4/W, the Chinese multi-Si cell market is likely to slowly feel the pressures in China following the substantial price gap between USD and RMB.
Module
Module prices didn’t fluctuate much in China. However, as companies plan to digest the on-hand stock of multi-Si modules, the overseas module prices continued to reflect a downtrend. India that always had high prices saw significantly lower prices recently, reaching US$ 0.31-0.32/W. Judging from now, we shouldn’t have too much expectation on the 0630 installation boom. We can only hope for flat module prices.