Price Battle to Start between Mono-Si and Multi-Si PV Cells; Impact on the Downstream Market will Need Two to Four Weeks: Price Trend
After the decrease of mono-si PV-cell price last week, the PV cell sector of the supply chain this week suffered more impacts. The competition between mono-si PV-cell manufacturers became severe, and some prices dropped. Because mono-si PV-cell price largely declined last week, the module sector can slightly lower the price. However, the competition between mono-si and multi-si didn’t make much progress. Because the demand of current end market mainly comes from previous developers’ evaluation of installation requirements in the end of Q4, it still needs two to four weeks for the downstream prices of mono-si and multi-si to become the same.
Polysilicon
The peak of polysilicon manufacturers’ overhauls is over. However, because the demands of distributed system on the market are different and there are rumors about China’s double reverse tax rate being lower than 5% for the major polysilicon suppliers in Korea, and 5-10% for the other larger manufacturers, it is hard to improve the situation currently under the circumstance with uncertain demand and the lack of major developments. Polysilicon price this week, therefore, remained flat.
Si-wafer
Two leading manufacturers of mono-si wafer largely lowered the prices last week, making the prices of small manufacturers this week slightly decrease to RMB 5.6-5.7/pc. On the contrary, multi-si wafer didn’t suffer too much pressure this week. Although downstream PV cell engaged in the battle between mono-si and multi-si prices, demand of multi-si was stable and silicon wafer manufacturers didn’t suffer much pressure. Sales of diamond wire saw still remained and the price on Chinese market was RMB 4.75/W. For Taiwan’s multi-si wafers, because they mostly come from import and the demand of diamond wire saw si-wafer increased, the price was higher, at US$0.645-0.65/pc.
PV cell
As for PV cell sector, after the quick drops of mono-si PV-cell prices from some manufacturers last week, prices became the same between mono-si and multi-si and kept decreasing to fight for the markets, making the entire mono-si PV-cell price decline to RMB 1.73/W. For multi-si PV-cell, under the impact of the same prices between mono-si and multi-si, price became slightly unstable. However, price this week remained flat and it is not expected to change until next week.
The decrease of mono-si PERC PV cell price became stable this week. Price for efficiency above 21.2% was US$0.28-0.31/W and 20.8-21% was US$0.275-0.28/W. China’s quoted price was RMB 2.0-2.05/W.
Module
Due to the dramatic drop and severe competition for PV cell price, there were rooms for lowering module prices. Small and medium module manufacturers are likely to bargain and the prices on the market have decreased. Because the drop of PV cell price focused on mono-si PV-cell, the drop of module price centered on mono-si module as well.
Source: pv.energytrend
