Taiwanese manufacturers hold conservative attitudes toward shipments after Chinese Lunar New Year due to the US-China trade war and the end of fiscal year in Japan. However, according to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, major Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers still maintain regular shipment while some of them even accelerate shipments to the US and Japan. Thus, sales revenue can still be high in February. It’s projected that the US-China trade war’s impact on Taiwanese manufacutrers won’t begin to show until March.
EnergyTrend’s data indicates that major manufacturers, such as Trina Solar, Yingli, Renesola, Canadian Solar, and Jinko Solar, have placed 60MW-90MW of orders from Taiwanese manufacturers. “Bargaining process was completed for 80% of February orders in January and none of the orders have been cancelled. It somehow accelerate shipments to the US and Japan in February. In addition, the total orders received exceed 110MW for just two manufacturers in Northern Taiwan in February,” said Arthur Hsu, research manager of EnergyTrend.
Although more orders have been placed in February, price may be revised downward. “Clients have requested cell and wafer manufacturers to reduce cost, with range being 3%-5%. Since bargaining process has been completed for most February orders, production utilization rate also increased. While manufacturers accelerate shipments to the US and Japan in February, shipments to these regions is projected to decline in March due to the US-China trade war and the end of fiscal year in Japan,” added Hsu.
In terms of this week’s spot market, buyers and sellers have different opinions regarding future price. Buyers have started to request for cost-down, meanwhile, sellers act as if they didn’t hear buyers’ request. On the other hand, the status for US-China trade war won’t be clear until mid-February or even mid-June. Therefore, manufacturers are conservative about orders in March, and hence lead to recent price stagnation.
This week’s poly, module, and cell price remain steady. For multi-si wafers, because clients have placed more orders in February, certain buyers have accepted the new February quotation while sellers insist to keep the price unchanged. This week’s average price comes to US$1.014/piece, a 0.8% rise. For mono-si wafers, price still fluctuates and demand slightly increases, with this week’s average price reaching US$1.171/piece, a 0.09% rise.