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PV orders have been booming for more than three weeks after SNEC 2017 tradeshow, gradually balancing supply and market demand across the PV value chain. Polysilicon sector has already gotten rid of pressure of oversupply so its spot price rose in a moderate step during this week like in last week.
In the prior two weeks, polysilicon sector suffered from uncertainty of market demand. However, this situation has changed. Currently, polysilicon price reached RMB 116 per kg and will continue rising because polysilicon makers are encouraged by bright market condition. EnergyTrend expects polysilicon price to reach RMB 120 per kg by the end of May and to go downturn again through June due to market shrink.
Price of wafers kept rising. Super high efficiency multi-si wafer’s price makes no concessions to the price of RMB 4.7 per piece with strong influence of leading wafer makers. Wafer buyers can only accept the high-leveled price and then transfer the extra cost to their buyers in the downstream segments since the shipment deadline for rush demand ahead of June 30 is around the corner.
Mono-si wafers for the demand by June 30, furthermore, have been almost booked except for a few volume that can only be purchased via costly channels. There have been no mono-si wafer in stock for the trade market for several weeks.
Restricted supply triggered price rise. It is the same in the high efficiency PV cell segment. Most PV cell makers have no products in stock so the spot price has reached around RMB 1.65 per watt. Emergent orders were mostly booked by prices that were RMB 0.02~0.04 per watt higher than usual orders, which helped increase level of PV cells’ spot price.
During this week, price trend of mono-si PV cells, which was limited in supply, slightly increase. On the contrary, prices of high-efficiency products such as mono-si and multi-si PERC cells significantly increased by approximately US$ 5 cents per watt thanks to advantageous efficiency and supply shortage.
PV module’s price this week remained at a similar level with in last week. Nonetheless, after China’s installation rush ends, it is necessary for the PV industry to focus on whether U.S.’s Section 201 will stimulate another phase of market demand for hedge against possible trade barrier. This opportunity is especially crucial for third-party countries’ production capacity, which were originally established to fulfill the U.S. market. The Section 201 and demand for preventive hedge could further raise PV module’s price.
(Analysis provided by Jason Tsai, an analyst at EnergyTrend)