Polysilicon Price Decreases Rapidly in the First Week after Chinese New Year; Mono-Si and Multi-Si Wafers Restart the Fight: Price Trend
Prices of the first week after Chinese New Year generally dropped. Besides, the price trend of polysilicon gained most of the attention on the market. With the bigger decrease of polysilicon price, there were more spaces for price reduction on the downstream, reflecting the current weak condition on the market.
Polysilicon
Polysilicon price has started to decline before Chinese New Year. After Chinese New Year, due to the decreasing demand, the price dropped to RMB 115-135/kg. In addition, the material price for mono-si was RMB 128-135/kg. Suffering from larger oversupply pressure, the material price for multi-si has reached RMB 115/kg. However, its average price was around RMB 120/kg. Although the price which the downstream required has kept decreasing, because the current inventory bearing capability of polysilicon manufacturers is stronger and there will be medium and large capacity overhauled in March and April, price in early March won’t decrease much. The key point depends on the end market in the end of March.
Si-wafer
The competition between mono-si and multi-si wafers has been reignited after Chinese New Year. Mono-si wafer leading manufacturers lowered the price to RMB 4.55/pc and USD 0.63/pc first, bringing the price reduction pressure to multi-si wafer. Thus, multi-si wafer leading manufacturers decreased the quoted price in March to RMB 3.8/pc and USD 0.535/pc, maintaining the spread of USD 0.08-0.1/pc. Because mono-si and multi-si leading manufacturers reduced their prices, other manufacturers followed the trend. Owing to the improving demand on the market, orders have increased when prices fell. The decrease in March is expected to slow down.
PV cell
This week, PV cell price was stable. Although there was price squeeze from overseas demand during Chinese New Year, overall speaking, the shipment volume turned better. Prices of mono-si and multi-si were stable. This week, with the decrease of mono-si and multi-si wafer prices, PV cell is expected to suffer price reduction pressure. Multi-si PV cell price in March will be RMB 1.28-1.32/W. Mono-si PERC PV cell price will reach RMB 1.55-1.6/W.
Module
Due to the weak demand after Chinese New Year in China, price and operating rate are in a weak position. Yet, with the rapid decline of module price and the approach of spring, demand of distributed system has slightly bounced back. The demand of large projects will begin in the end of March and overseas demand will be combined. Demand on the market will start to grow.
Source: pv.energytrend
