Spot price of polysilicon continues dropping. Some polysilicon in Taiwanese market was sold by prices less than US$12.5/kg, while the price trend in China was also weak. As it goes closer to the end of the year, polysilicon manufacturers became more flexible for the prices but more strict with payment terms.
Multi-si wafers remained in short supply in both China and Taiwan. PV cell manufacturers have been purchasing multi-si wafers for cells at climbing prices resulted from strong demand from the downstream sector. The wafer orders in next January were mostly dealt at historical-high prices, found EnergyTrend. In Taiwan, orders of super high efficiency multi-si wafers for 2016 January were transacted at prices higher than US$0.9/pc, while some orders of standard multi-si wafers were dealt at US$0.88/pc. The spot prices rose significantly compared to the US$0.85~0.855/pc quotes reported in December.
In the PV cell sector, it is projected to see a demand slowdown in the U.S. because of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) extension announced this week. U.S.’s demand in 2016 will be less than previously expected so that PV manufacturers that deliver relatively high ratio of their products to the U.S., both directly and indirectly, will be influenced. Furthermore, PV cell orders dealt for January can’t reflect the price rise of wafers as cells have been sold at relatively high prices in December. As a result, the revenues of the PV cell sector will be slightly squeezed in weeks to come.
PV module sector was still warm because of strong demand from Chinese PV power plant constructions. First-tier module manufactures have been producing under full utilization rates for several months, and the smooth shipments keep the inventory low. Nonetheless, we found it is difficult for PV module vendors to sell their products by higher prices. Accordingly, the PV module price trend will remain stable in the recent.
