Selling prices of Polysilicon in Chinese market dropped again in the past year. As EnergyTrend learned, the spot prices decreased because large amount of polysilicon were sold by prices under an agreed range despite Wacker was limited by the agreement. Lower-than-deal prices put stress on polysilicon transactions and resulted in the price downturn.
In contrast to polysilicon, supply of multi-si wafers was slightly shorter than demand, resulting in price raise in recent weeks. Quotes of multi-si wafers in December are expected to rise by more than US$0.01/pc from November. In China, the supply shortage is even severer. Wafer manufacturers have been operating under full capacities for weeks so that provisional, small-quantity orders would only be received under prices higher than average. However, spot price of mono-si wafers kept dropping due to weak demand.
PV cells’ prices went upward following prior weeks and such trend is expected to remain until early January 2016. Many Taiwan-made PV cells with 17.8% efficiency or higher were sold by US$0.34/W, and some cell orders were dealt by prices even higher. Nonetheless, many manufacturers foresee a price drop after the Chines New Year Holiday next year because of expected weaker demand.
Chinese market has been looking for PV modules with higher power output. Such demand represented stable, or stronger, demand to high efficient multi-si PV cells that are for 265W+ modules. It also triggers efficiency competition among the PV cell manufacturers.
PV module demand in China was still strong among the local installation boom. First-tier module manufacturers are producing under full capacities for fulfilling the module orders. In the recent, some 260W modules hit price of RMB4.05/W, and the price is about to increase week by week. However, some PV systems have yet received the governmental subsidies – which will negatively impact operations of system developers and EPC service providers starting from 2016. For developers that are backed by National or Central companies, it is possible for them to run their business through financial methods and debts. For small-scale, private developers, it is highly risky for them to maintain their business under cash flow stress if the subsidies were not paid. In such scenario, some small-scale developers could choose to retreat from the Chinese market in 2016.