Ministry of Commerce of People’s Republic of China (MOFCOM) recently announced that there were subsidies to the US polysilicon under investigation which led to substantive damages toward China’s domestic industry. Thus, countervailing duty of 6.5% has been imposed on two of the US manufacturers, Hemlock and AE Polysilicon. According to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, most of the Chinese polysilicon manufacturers have resumed production, which will increase polysilicon capacity. Hence, the anti-subsidy duty will have limited impact on price as price is not likely to increase in the future.
According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, the fire accident experienced by SK Hynix's Wuxi plant has led to a sudden surge in market demand. The spot market prices for mainstream PC DRAM 2Gb chips have soared by a whopping 36% since the day of the fire (the calculation is based on the chip's agreed price of $US 2.18 on 9/24). A growth of at least 10%, it is worth noting, is also expected for the soon-to-be-announced September contract prices. Given that SK Hynix was originally the supplier with the highest market share in the graphics memory market (leading both Samsung and Micron), a major shortage in graphics DRAM (for instance, DDR3x16, GDDR3, and GDDR5) has inevitably occurred. The Taiwanese companies with noticeable, though much lower, shares in this market include Nanya and Winbond.
Regular inspections have been conducted on the No.4 reactor at the Oi nuclear power plant. However, delay on the inspections has once again led to Japan’s “zero nuclear power” status.
According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, the market penetration rate for USB 3.0 flash drives may only be 10% in 2013, which is weaker than expected.
Due to the EU-China trade wars and the rising of Asian markets, PV manufacutrers have started to re-adjust their strategic plans.
