EnergyTrend finds a consecutive fall in price trend of polysilicon. Recently, some polysilicon in Taiwan market was sold by price lower than US$13/kg, and the downturn is expected to last for a while.
The multi-si wafer sector was still in short supply in both China and Taiwan markets during the week. As the wafer production volume was unable to meet the demand, the spot prices climbed rapidly like prior weeks. Most multi-si wafer deals for December have been signed, and the very rare spot in stock will only be sold at even higher prices. In contrast, demand to mono-si wafers remained weak in the past week, and the spot price decreased down to below US$0.9/PC in Taiwan.
The PV cell sector was highly demanded so quotes climbed. Some quotes for Taiwan-made PV cells with efficiency of, and higher than, 17.8% topped US$0.34/pc in the past days, and the upward trend is expected to last to late January 2016. The PV cell vendors were generally positive about the future demand until the next Chinese New Year Holiday, according to EnergyTrend’s interviews with them. Nonetheless, there were also manufacturers that are relatively conservative toward cell demand and price trend after the Holiday.
China’s strong demand for purchasing PV modules to construct domestic PV power plants kept module manufacturers running at their full capacities. Spot prices for 260W PV modules remained between RMB3.95~4.05/W during the past 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.