The overall market status this week has been a relatively smooth one since China’s “531” new policies were implemented. The drop in production of upstream polysilicon is gradually coming to an end. In terms of si-wafer, the limited supply and stable demand caused prices to remain deadlocked. In the PV cell market, manufacturers are either stocking up or clearing out their inventories, which may be related to the scale of their businesses. Module price and volume have remained steady, and the dealers are obviously looking forward to subsequent new orders. As the market is getting out of rock bottom, there may be a lively change in each sector next month.

Polysilicon

China’s domestic polysilicon market was stable this week. Orders next month are still being negotiated, so the price didn’t change too much. Due to the lowered impact of routine maintenance, Xinte and SINOSICO will gradually return to full production in September, and Xinjiang GCL and Tongwei’s newly added capacity is expected to start production in September. In October, their contribution will be seen on the market. Thus, polysilicon output in August and in September are expected to be the same, and the market will become relatively stable. So far, China’s domestic multi-si material price has remained at RMB83-90/KG, and mono-si material price has reached RMB90-98/KG. Overseas multi-si material price has maintained at US$10.3-13.5/KG.

Si-wafer

Si-wafer’s supply and demand remain balanced this week. There was no excessive noise on the market, and the price was more stable. So far, the reasonable transaction prices of mono-si and multi-si wafer have been RMB3.15-3.26/Pcand RMB2.40-2.45/Pc, respectively. Black silicon product price also maintained at RMB2.80/Pc. However, sales of low-priced mono-si wafers began to appear on the market, driving down the price of mono-si wafers in the Chinese market, which is estimated to be related to de-stocking. There was also little change in overseas prices, with mono-si wafer, multi-si wafer and black silicon product maintaining prices of US$0.400-0.425/Pc, US$0.311-0.375/Pc and US$0.375/Pc, respectively.

PV cell

Demand for multi-si products has fallen sharply this week, leading to a sluggish condition. The impact of uncertainty over India’s safeguard duty grew, with some PV cell plants in China taking in as much as 25% of their own tariffs, resulting in heavy losses. To deal with the situation, some PV cell plants have adjusted their utilization rate, while first tier manufacturers are piling up their inventory.

China’s domestic demand for mono-si products slowed down. Small- and medium-sized manufacturers have suspended the offer of general mono-si PV cell; but there has been early inquiries from module plants for PERC high-efficiency PV cell. So far, China’s domestic general mono-si PV cell price has decreased to RMB1.02-1.10/W, and high-efficiency mono-si PV cell price has achieved RMB1.13-1.21/W. In terms of multi-si, general multi-si PV cell price has declined to RMB0.93-0.97RMB/W. High-efficiency black silicon product price has been RMB4.5-4.7/Pc (RMB0.95~1.00/W). Some plants controlled the cost of black silicon product price to RMB4.3/Pc (RMB0.90/W).

Overseas market’s PV cell price continued to be revised. General mono-si and high-efficiency mono-si prices were US$0.124-0.140/W and US$0.163-0.170/W. Yet, the average price of high-efficiency mono-si PV cell reduced to US$0.165/W. As demand of multi-si weakened, the price slipped slightly to US$0.123-0.155/W, and the average price dropped to US$0.129/W.

Module

China’s domestic module market this week mainly looked forward to the future, and experienced little changes. Yet, many plants have begun to negotiate orders for September. So far, general multi-si (270-275W) price has remained at RMB1.80-2.00/W, and high-efficiency multi-si (280-285W) price has been RMB1.85-2.15/W. Prices of general mono-si (290-295W) and high-efficiency mono-si (300-305W) were RMB1.90-2.20/W and RMB2.10-2.25/W.

The overseas market remained roughly unchanged, except that the price of general mono-si (290-295W) fell to US$0.251-0.402/W. The prices of general multi-si, high-efficiency multi-si and high-efficiency mono-si were flat, at US$0.228-0.285D/W, US$0.245-0.288/W and US$0.279-0.420/W, respectively.