Polysilicon price rebounds, and Si wafer price increase simmers

TAIWAN: According to EnergyTrend, polysilicon spot price has recovered. Although the increase is modest, the price remained above $50/kg which Manufacturers indicate is the bottom line at the current stage. On the other hand, there is a slight change in Si wafer price. EnergyTrend indicates, due to rising demand for mono-Si wafer, the spot price has subsequently increased.

Moreover, as for multi-Si wafer, manufacturers plan to increase the spot price in July, and the magnitude is estimated to be a 5 percent increase. Some manufacturers have offered a new price quote to their client, but customer acceptance remains low. Furthermore, $50/kg is the bottom line for polysilicon price and their clients deny the price increase. EnergyTrend believes that Si wafer manufacturers will face challenges on financial performance in July.Source: EnergyTrend, Taiwan.

According to EnergyTrend’s survey, the polysilicon price has recovered to the range of $50/kg and $52/kg. The average price has slightly risen by 0.52 percent to $51.265/kg. In addition, the average price of multi-Si wafer has decreased by 0.55 percent to $1.991/piece, while the average price of mono-Si wafer has increased by 5.12 percent to $2.626/piece.

The current price trends of multi-Si wafer and Mono-Si wafer showed a slight directional change. Mono-Si wafer price hit the bottom and rebounded. Therefore, the focus of the PV market trend is to see whether the multi-Si wafer price will also recover in July. On the other hand, the surveyed spot prices of solar cell range between $0.73/Watt and $0.93/Watt, but the average price has dropped by 2.74 percent to $0.781/Watt. Furthermore, the average price of module remained at $1.293/Watt.

Manufacturers indicate that the inventory clearance is still in the process, and the market demand is just in the early stage of recovery. So, it is hard to determine the demand momentum. Nevertheless, this recovery still can help the price increase of 2H11.

The recent market development has led EnergyTrend to believe that the price adjustment issue is going to remain, evidenced by current polysilicon price quotation in the market. Although some contracts are being renegotiated, the lowest contract price still remained at $50/kg. In addition, major regional markets will contribute positively to the development of the worldwide solar energy market in 2H11.

EnergyTrend believes that the upstream manufacturers are taking a positive attitude toward the market development of 2H11, so the flexibility in negotiating trading price is going to be limited. The downstream demand on the other hand, manufacturers indicate that their clients have drawn much attention on price trend and product performance. Although trading price has stopped decreasing, upward trend is yet under development in the short run.

As for product performance, their clients request higher conversion efficiency, and evaluate products by cost per KWh. Therefore, EnergyTrend believes that multi-Si cells and mono-Si cells that have conversion efficiency of 16.6 percent or above will be in a better position to see price recovery in 2H11.