According to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, while demand is recovering for PV industry orders in the second half of the year, price has yet to see a strong rebound, and vendors are placing more priority on unit price (USD/Watt) – to the extent that top-tier PV manufacturers are being meticulous down to the thousandths. Furthermore, as high-efficiency multi-Si wafers continue to improve and market price drops rapidly, the price to performance ratio for the product category has already surpassed that of traditional p-type mono-Si wafers. Industry vendors indicate, as the quality of high-efficiency multi-Si wafer products (including traditional high-efficiency and mono-like products) continues to improve, the p-type mono-Si wafer market will likely be eliminated.
Currently, efficiency for high-efficiency multi-wafer products is over 17.8%, while p-type mono-wafer efficiency is above 20%. In terms of raw material price, TrendForce data indicates that average price for high-efficiency multi-Si wafer and p-type mono-wafer products is around US$1.17/piece and US$1.48/piece, respectively. Looking at unit price, p-type mono-wafer products are still more expensive than high-efficiency multi-Si wafer products. Therefore, aside from specific customizations (color, wattage, etc.), TrendForce believes high-efficiency multi-Si wafer products will gradually cannibalize the p-type mono-wafer market. Based on mono-wafer shipment volumes, p-type products are still the mainstream at present. In addition to the impact from recent exchange rates, declining p-type product price has resulted in the continual downtrend of mono-Si wafer price.