Spot prices for mid-stream PV sectors have accelerated rising since last week and PV cell price increased more rapidly than other sectors due to former loss. Prices for monocrystalline products, which are still in supply shortage, even surged.
Polysilicon supply in China will be in shortage through February due to continuous capacity expansion of mono-si ingot and wafers, resulting in higher spot price ranged RMB 142~145 per kg. Si wafer orders usually get finalized one or two months in advance. Therefore, as of in the first ten days of February, polysilicon price is predicted to remain stable while rising a little bit. Non-China region's polysilicon higher pricing orders will stay at US$ 14~15.5 / kg.
Multi-si wafer prices in Chinese and Taiwanese markets increased in sync. In China, quote prices ranged from RMB 5.15 to RMB 5.3 per piece. In Taiwan, quote prices showed a mix of signals, while super-high-efficiency multi-si wafer price would be up from US$0.68 per piece.
Because some multi-si wafer foundries will not operate at full rate during the Lunar New Year Holiday, ultra-high-efficiency multi-si wafer might keep on accumulating price rising momentum under a slight undersupply. Its price might reache US$ 0.69 per piece after the Holiday.
Supply shortage of mono-si wafers will not be tackled until April since LONGi and Zhonghuan, the two leading manufacturers, schedule to complete their capacity expansions during March and April. In the short-term, price of mono-si wafers will raise with a moderate step.
Mono-si and multi-si PV cell prices both rose this week. Price for multi-si PV cell with 18.4% conversion efficiency rose to US$ 0.22 per watt, while price for standard mono-si PV cell significantly climbed to US$ 0.25~0.28 per watt under supply shortage. In China, quotes also kept on increasing. Multi-si PV cell price reached RMB 1.8 / W, and mono-si PV cell price ranged from RMB 1.95 to 1.98 per watt.
Such an upward trend restricts sale volume of PV cells this week as many cell manufacturers targeted at potential price hike after the Holiday driven by China’s installation rush.
In contrast with mid-stream sectors, PV module price remained flat due to oversupply. Global PV module prices have, and will go downwards except for in China, where the module demand is strong.
(Analysis provided by Corrine Lin, analyst at EnergyTrend)