Despite annual equipment maintenance restraining production volumes, prices on China's polysilicon have tumbled on weak demand, signaling across-the-board price drop in the PV supply chain. The price decline reverses the long-term higher prices on China's polysilicon market, than the international level, due to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy charged on polysilicon imports from E.U., the U.S., and Korea.

Due to sluggish market demand, wafer manufacturers have slashed orders for materials, upsetting prices on China's polysilicon spot prices. While major suppliers still maintain their quotes at around RMB 120/kg, smaller ones have cut their prices to RMB100/kg from RMB130/kg, down by 30% in one month.

Rapid drop in polysilicon prices has induced further sharp price cut for wafers this week, narrowing the price gap between super-high efficiency and high-efficiency wafers. Mainstream multi-si wafers in China now fetch RMB 4.3/pc, compared with US$0.55-0.58/pc in Taiwan. It's expected that spot prices of wafers will drop further in September and October because of the pressure of PV cell manufacturers that have been suffering from the hardest situation across the supply chain amid the sluggish demand.

Most PV cell firms are in deep red due to price drop that are the steepest among the supply chain. As the market demand seems to remain in the doldrums in September, PV cell suppliers have cut prices to under US$0.2/W – a new bottom, again -- in order to lower inventory. The price drop is expected to continue throughout September.

A silver lining is the emerging demand for mono- and multi-si PERC cells stimulated by China's "Top Runner Program," which embraces high-efficiency PV cells. However, price drop of standard PV cells has driven down prices of PERC cells, to around US$0.28/W for mono-si PERC cells with conversion efficiency of 20.8% and US$0.25-0.255/W for multi-si PERC cells.

China’s domestic spot prices for PV modules have slipped to RMB 2.95-3.15/W, or US$0.39/W. Affected by the Chinese market, prices in the U.S. and Japanese markets have also declined sharply, posing a major challenge to module firms worldwide.