Changes Within PV Market Leads to Lowered Prices in 2Q14, says TrendForce

Recent changes in the PV market have led to China’s waning demands at the end of March 2014, while further observations are required for orders in April this year. These have led to lowered price quotes for relevant products. In other words, although there were few changes in April and May orders, price quotes have fallen. Thus, manufacturers are still conservative about price trends in Q2, analyzed EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce. 

Polysilicon contract prices continued to decline in April 2014. In fact, contract prices dropped to US$ 21-22/kg after hitting US$23/kg in March. “Due to growing mono-si wafer demands , manufacturers have started to focus on high-quality polysilicon in April, which led to decreased demands for normal-grade polysilicon that was previously in high demands,” said Arthur Hsu, research manager of EnergyTrend. “Meanwhile, auxiliary material demand has declined leading to improved supply and demands situation since manufacturers now focus on high-efficiency products and mono-si products. Based on current prices, the price difference between auxiliary material and normal products is about 15%.”

In addition, polysilicon contract price declined for two consecutive months, which also affected spot price trend. “Certain price quotes have dipped around 0.5%-1%. Looking into the price trend in Q2, polysilicon spot price will be further lowered and contract price will continue to decline slightly. Furthermore, policy changes and increased market uncertainties might cause wafer, cell, and module prices to decline as well,” added Hsu.

This Week’s Price Quotes

Polysilicon price slightly declined 0.3% to US$20.392/kg. Due to Chinese manufacturers lowered price quotes, multi-si wafer price dropped 0.49% to US$1.021/piece, but mono-si wafer prices remained flat. Chinese manufacturers’ cell quotation declined this week by 2.55% to US$0.382/watt. Module prices also dipped 0.64% to US$0.619/watt.