According to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, due to the increasing demands of high efficiency products, significant price advantage, and rumors suggesting that the double reverse policy is about to be finalized, Taiwanese solar manufacturers have continued to maintain a good order visibility and high capacity utilization rate. Unlike the past few months, manufacturers have recently become more positive towards the future, and order visibility has extended to the second quarter.
Though word is that subsidy is to be revised approximately 10% in the Japanese market, EnergyTrend and related manufacturers still believe that demands in the Japanese market will remain impressive due to the following reasons: even after a 10% subsidy revision, which is not a small cut, subsidies in the Japanese market still ranked first in the world; furthermore, subsidy for other renewable energies remained the same, which is beneficial to the promotion of renewable energy in the market. On the other hand, the EU double reverse is to be announced in the second quarter and in order to avoid the effects of the retroactive period, manufacturers must meet the Q2/Q3 market demands in advance, which resulted in an order visibility that has extended up to 3 months. In addition, though several manufacturers have gained less profit in February due to the holiday and product adjustments, they are positive about the future. The recent market condition, whether observed subjectively or objectively, is beneficial to Taiwanese solar industries. Still, manufacturers remain conservative about whether the market demands are able to be maintained after EU has announced their double reverse policy.
As for the spot market, sales are still booming and downstream manufacturers have confidently raised the price.