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| Author | InfoLink |
| Updated | June 28, 2018 |
Poly
China’s domestic polysilicon prices are reaching a stop loss limit, as the decrease shrank to less than 5% this week. Polysilicon prices outside China saw a slight decrease compared to the previous week. Multi-Si wafer use in this week averaged RMB 75–80/kg, while Mono-Si wafer use came to RMB 95/kg.
Polysilicon prices are mostly stable at the moment, as RMB 75/kg for multi-Si wafer use and RMB 90/kg for mono-Si wafer use are the common lowest price points. Further, as most polysilicon companies have started their equips maintenance, it is expected that polysilicon prices in China will not go any lower next week. For non-Chinese markets, prices and volumes continue to decrease as most wafer manufacturers remain low in utilization rates. Current polysilicon prices in US dollars for non-Chinese markets and those in RMB for Chinese markets stand at the same level after conversions.
Wafer
This week, mono-Si wafer companies had another price adjustment, pulling the price gap of mono-Si and multi-Si wafers back to RMB 0.9-1/piece. In addition to Longi, which lowered the conventional mono-Si wafer prices to RMB 3.35/piece in China and US$ 0.445/piece outside China, Zhonghuan also decreased its prices for conventional mono-Si wafers to RMB 3.32/piece and RMB 3.37/piece for low-resistance mono-Si wafers.
Due to an overly large price gap between mono-Si and multi-Si wafers in the past, multi-Si wafers will marginally increase in demand while mono-Si wafers will slightly decrease judging from the market demand in July. Overall, it is reasonable for mono-Si wafer companies to try bringing the price gap back within RMB 1/piece. However, due to the already stable prices of polysilicon, and the short inventory and supply of wafers leds by produce reduction, mono-Si and multi-Si wafer prices will remain consistent in July, and a dramatic downturn is unlikely.
Cell
Following the end of the 630 installation boom, top-tier vertical integration manufacturers have begun reducing the purchase of mono-Si and mono-Si PERC cells, leading mono-Si cells to plummet. Mono-Si PERC prices reached RMB 1.25-1.33/W, US$ 0.19/W, shrinking the profits. Conventional mono-Si cells have had difficulties finding demands recently. Although a number of manufacturers have not yet released their new quotes, an apparent decrease is still expected to happen recently for the purpose of encouraging future orders.
Orders for multi-Si cells from non-Chinese markets have begun to increase following the high C/P ratio of multi-Si products in the past. Quotes in RMB have become stable, while quotes in US dollars have decreased slightly due to fluctuations in RMB currency rates. Generally speaking, multi-Si orders have begun to increase; some manufacturers have even upped the utilization rates for multi-Si cells, or converted parts of conventional mono-Si capacities to multi-Si.
Module
Despite the unclear future trend of the MIP, module prices in the European market rapidly went down during the InterSolar Europe in Munich, Germany. This also boosted the decrease in global module prices. PERC modules have gone below US$ 0.34/W, and conventional multi-Si modules are commonly lower than US$ 0.29/W. Due to higher base periods for mono-Si and multi-Si PERC module prices, and currently vigorous demand for multi-Si modules in non-Chinese markets, an apparent price decrease is likely to happen in the near future.