Weekly Solar Market Price Trends: Mainland China Report

Solarzoom Solar Market Report Aug 13- Aug 17, 2012

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Silicon material

At present, the main quotation of domestic level-1 silicon material stands at 155 Yuan/kg, and at 145 Yuan/kg for level-2 ones. As for imported silicon material, the price of level-1 is $20.889/kg, and $20.215/kg for level-2.

This week, the price of domestic level-1 poly-c-Si materials dropped by 2 Yuan/kg, and the price of level-2 kept steady. The price of imported polysilicon material had a slight fluctuation owing to the change of the exchange rate. In recent days, the market quotation still remained chaotic, and the competition has become more severe. In order to prevent the aging of equipment, some enterprises decided to restart their production. However, due to a lack of competitive advantage, they have to endure the loss. With the situation of overcapacity, the cheaper imported poly-c-Si material keeps flooding into the Chinese market and the price rivalry will be sustained for a long time. What’s more, nowadays, it is difficult to improve the demand volume, and the market will remain gloomy for a short time.

Wafer

Currently, concerning 125mm*125mm mono-c-Si wafer, the price of tier-1 suppliers stands at 5.70 Yuan/pc and 5.00 Yuan/pc for tier-2. As to 156mm*156mm mono-c-Si wafer，the price of tier-1 suppliers is at 9.30 Yuan/pc and 8.8 Yuan/pc for tier-2. Also, in terms of 156mm*156mm poly-c-Si wafer, the price of tier-1 suppliers has reached 7.4 Yuan/pc, and 6.9 Yuan/pc for tier-2 ones.

The price of wafer saw a further drop this week. Affected by both the shrinking demands and the overcapacity, the price of wafer had no improvement. After the AD&CVD case issued by the USA, the EU also is expected to begin the investigation into the PV modules from China, which will bring one disaster after another to China-based wafer firms. Presently, plenty of wafer makers are obsessed by the problem of their liquidity, so most of them are not willing to accept credit days. Nowadays, there are more and more shut-down makers; those who are still in operation are supported by some large-scale cooperators or their own projects. Many wafer manufacturers choose to undersell their wafers to increase the shipment volume. At the moment, the wafer price is quite low, while the trading condition remains disappointing.

Cell

For 125mm*125mm mono-c-Si cell, the price of tier-1 suppliers stands at 3.4 Yuan\W, and 2.90 Yuan\W for tier-2. With regard to 156mm*156mm mono-c-Si cell，the price of tier-1 suppliers is at 3.45 Yuan/W, and 3.05 Yuan\W for tier-2 ones. For 156mm*156mm poly-c-Si cell, the price of tier-1 suppliers has reached 2.85 Yuan/W, and 2.55 Yuan\W for tier-2.

This week, the price of domestic cell fell slightly. In the early part of the week, most enterprises quoted steadily, but when the weekend came, the price had a moderate fluctuation. Concerning that many module manufacturers undersold their inventories in the last week, the price of cell had a further decline this week and most manufacturers have already reduced their quotation. Recently, manufacturers have felt great pressure due to the falling order volume. The low price and small profit margin have been normal nowadays. What’s worse, the credit period is getting longer and longer, which brings about more difficulties in operation to China-based solar firms. To some vertically integrated enterprises that have production lines of both cells and modules, they still have difficulties in fully utilizing their cells into modules. As a result, they have to raise cells as inventories. In the short term, the price rivalry will continue into next week.

Module

With regard to 190W mono-c-Si module, the price of 1st-tier suppliers stands at 4.70 Yuan/W, and 4.4 Yuan/W for 2nd-tier ones. For the 245W mono-c-Si crystalline module, the price of 1st-tier suppliers is at 5.35 Yuan/W, and 5.00 Yuan/W for 2nd-tier ones. In terms of 230W poly-c-Si crystalline module, the price of 1st-tier suppliers has reached 4.7 Yuan/W, and 4.20 Yuan/W for 2nd-tier ones. Considering 195W mono-c-Si module, the main price of 1st-tier suppliers stands at 5.20 Yuan/W, and 4.55 Yuan/W for 2nd-tier ones. Concerning 250W mono-c-Si module, the price of 1st-tier suppliers is 5.50 Yuan/W, and 5.1 Yuan/W for 2nd-tier ones. When it comes to 240W poly-c-Si module, the price of 1st-tier suppliers is 4.90 Yuan/W, and 4.60 Yuan/W for 2nd-tier ones.

In recent days, the price of module had a modification in the weak market. Currently, plenty of manufacturers undersell their inventories at the port abroad. Considering the brand effect, 1st-tier suppliers do not cut their quotation sharply. In addition to the sluggish foreign market, the sales volume of the module at the port abroad was affected by both the summer vacation and the AD&CVD case in Europe. Several manufacturers begin to lack confidence, since the modules of lower tiers stored for long-time may have output-quality problems, in result they tend to undersell the inventories as soon as possible to gain cash. Although those modules whose prices were cut down are mainly low-efficiency ones, it is expected that such a situation will probably have an impact on the pricing of the regular modules.

Tier-one companies include the U.S and HK stock market listed entities, with large capacity and product circulation in the market, like Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (ADR)(NYSE:STP), Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE: YGE), Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ), Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL), JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (ADR)(NASDAQ: JASO) and ReneSola Ltd. (ADR)(NYSE: SOL)