March 23, 2011 --- According to the weekly price survey conducted by EnergyTrend, two extremes appear in the solar cell spot price this week. The price of poly silicon continued to increase, while the wafer and cell prices decreased. On the other hand, due to policy uncertainties, the European market demand is losing its momentum.
This week’s survey showed that in the upstream sector of the solar industry, poly silicon price has increased by 8.54%, to $85.2/kg. In addition, the average price of wafer has decreased. The average price of poly silicon wafer has dropped by 4.57% and comes to $3.55/piece. In addition, the average price of mono silicon wafer has decreased by 4.29%, to $3.75/piece. In terms of solar cell, the spot price has reduced to around $1.22/Watt this week, a decrease of 0.73%. The decrease magnitude has narrowed compared with that of last week. Moreover, the average price of module has dropped by 0.43% to around $1.61/Watt. Besides, the prices of thin film and CPV have remained relatively the same.
According to EnergyTrend’s survey, due to uncertainties in policy changes, the European system manufacturers take a conservative attitude, which resulted in apparent decrease in market demand. Currently, some vendors have cut price in the market to clear inventory at a lower price. On the other hand, although manufacturers are aggressively establishing their presence in markets outside Europe and have had a certain level of success in doing so, most success are on bidding basis. Therefore, an obvious market growth needs to be in accordance with government policies and timing.