Spot prices of polysilicon are plump although demands from downstream sectors are strong. Oversupply strictly restricts polysilicon price from raising so that inventory is difficult for manufacturers to clean. The price trend is expected to remain weak in near future.
In contrast, multi-si wafers are seeing short supply due to the strong market demand and the quotes have been rising. First-tier Chinese multi-si wafer manufacturers reported quotes up to RMB6.15/pc. In order to secure the wafer source and shipment do downstream sector, most PV cell manufacturers have already booked needed wafers for the entire November. Upon this situation, EnergyTrend expects a continuously upward trend of multi-si wafer’s prices. However, prices of mono-si wafers dropped again due to weak demand.
Price raise of PV cell sector continued during the week. Some Taiwan-made cells with efficiency up to 17.8% have reached US$0.335/W and some were selling cells with higher prices. Prices of PV cells manufactured in third-party countries kept rising to US$0.37~0.38/W, and the slightly upward trend seems to remain. In China, stronger and stronger demand to PV modules with 265W power output drove a new efficiency war among domestic PV cell production. As a result, PV cell supply in China was short in both standard and high-efficiency segment. Some makers shipped their cells by price of RMB2.4/W, and expected an even higher quote for following weeks.
Installation boom in China triggers enormous demand to PV modules so first-tier manufactures are producing under full capacity. Price for 260W modules reached RMB4.05/W and is likely to keep rising. Furthermore, it is found that price of mono-si modules increased together with the price growth of multi-si modules.