Due to the weakened demand, the pressure of price reduction still remained. According to the latest survey conducted by EnergyTrend, the price in the downstream solar cell industry has slightly decreased. Therefore, EnergyTrend believes that the sales price has come down close enough to production costs. However, the circumstances of high raw material price in the upstream of the solar cell industry limited manufacturers to cut price further. Therefore, some companies have lowered their production capacity in response to the current market. On the other hand, since the pressure of a decreasing price in polysilicon and Si-wafer has increased, it is forecasted that the price of the upstream solar cell industry will continue to decrease in the near future to get more business orders.
As the survey showed, the price of polysilicon has increased by 2.37% to $77.13/kg. However, there is a decrease of 2.97% in the average contract price of multi-Si wafer, to $3.33/piece, while the price of mono-Si wafer has still remained the same. Moreover, the price of solar cell has fallen by 1.74%, to 1.129/Watt, since the market demand has not recovered. Compared with a few weeks ago, the price decrease has narrowed, some manufacturers indicated that since the sales price has reached close to production cost, they will consider decreasing production capacity in response to market condition. Besides, price fluctuation in the module market still remained. The lowest price decreased below $1.5/Watt, and the average price dropped by 0.39%, to 1.54/Watt. Finally, the price of PV inverter has declined by 3.02%, to $0.257/Watt.
According to EnergyTrend’s observation, since Italian government will release their latest subsidy policy at the end of April and the peak season is approaching, the wait-and-see attitude has spread in the market. However, oversupply has still remained until the early second quarter of the year. Some solar cell manufacturers have faced the pressure that the sales price is close to production cost. Therefore, it is only reasonable for manufacturers to cut production capacity.