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This week, China is supposed to step into the start-up stage of the 630 installation rush. The PV cell and module manufacturers should start stocking up. Yet, the actual condition failed to meet expectations. Besides Labor Day holiday, the imbalance between supply and demand for polysilicon and si-wafer last week is a reason. The expected demand is likely to be postponed. Other factors should be observed.
Polysilicon
Most of this month's polysilicon orders were completed last month, so prices have not changed much this week and mono-si or multi-si material mainly remained flat. Prices of mono-si material were still around RMB 130/Kg and prices of multi-si material were around RMB 123/Kg. Because of the price reduction for mono-si wafer leading manufacturers last week, afterward, its effect on supply and demand should be observed.
Si-wafer
Quotes of mono-si wafer leading manufacturers were RMB 4.55/W (China) and US$0.61/W (overseas), with a slight decrease. For multi-si wafer, the existing price gap was maintained to boost downstream purchasing demand. Yet, the entire market condition this week didn't warm up. The next wave of price growth hasn't showed up. New incentives will need to be expected.
PV cell
This week's demand for PV cells continued to reflect last week's market conditions: market demands for mono-si and multi-si PV cells gradually showed two situations. Affected by existing overseas orders and Chinese demand, mono-si PERC products have been warming up since April, but it hasn't reached the stage of imbalance between supply and demand. The demand is expected to extend to the beginning of the third quarter.
The demand for multi-si PV cells has been calm, with most of them on standby, except for some small and medium-sized manufacturers, who expected si-wafers to continue to fall in price. First-tier manufacturers were continuing to increase production utilization at an economic scale to reduce total production costs, and were even aggressively developing technologies that can improve product performance, facing market uncertainty with technological diversity. Prices this week didn't change much.
Module
The change of module market was similar to PV cell market. The demand for high-efficiency mono-si PERC products was strong, but the actual deal price didn't change much. First-tier PV cell manufacturers continued to supply high-efficiency products. The imbalance between supply and demand hasn't been observed.
Multi-si module had the same situation. The supply of the first-tier manufacturers became the focus. To handle the change on the market, small and medium-sized manufacturers became conservative. If there is no other trigger, the entire market condition is expected to be sluggish.