PVinsights: Mono solar components face more price pressure than multi ones at the end of Aug.

Aug. 28, 2013 - PRLog -- Mono module price keeps an obvious price drop this week, since solar investors are looking for lower solar module prices, according to PVinsights, www.pvinsights.com. Although mono module demand in Japan keeps solid, Japanese buyers are still pushing price down on non-Japanese modules. Chinese solar module makers have been aggressively getting into Japanese market so as to provide lower prices. Moreover, some Chinese solar module makers are promoting their mono modules in Europe to keep their price competitions, because mono module price is still higher than the guarantee price now. On the other hand, multi solar module prices enjoy the price increasing of Chinese modules in Europe. As a result, overall mono module price goes down and multi module price improve moderately this week.

Mono and multi cell prices continue to decrease this week, because solar cell makers are experiencing some order cuts, especially from Europe. Actually, major solar cell makers are still having solid orders, mainly from outsourcing manufacturing to Japan and the US, but 2^nd tier solar cell makers are losing lots of outsourcing orders or direct orders recently so as to cut their price more seriously. Moreover, Chinese solar cell prices are still much lower than non-Chinese cell ones, so that solar cell buyers are pushing more price pressure on non-Chinese cells, especially on Taiwanese cells. Therefore, solar cell prices keep a continuous price drop this week.

Solar wafer prices, affected by downstream component price decreasing, trim down slightly on multi wafers but seriously on mono ones. Recently, some major Chinese mono wafer makers are aggressively expanding their market share. Although their mono wafer quality is not the best, the acceptable quality with low prices does make solar cell manufacturers have incentives to adopt it. With the serious price competition from Chinese mono wafer suppliers, mono wafer prices show an obvious price drop this week. On the other hand, major multi wafer makers would like to keep the current price level to prevent from more serious loses, but major solar cell makers would like to have lower wafer prices to offset part of their cell price drops. Therefore, overall wafer prices drop this week.

Polysilicon prices improve slightly this week, because Chinese polysilicon suppliers and traders seem to meet at the target price level now. After pushing their prices to around 135 RMB/Kg, Chinese polysilicon makers have met their initial price target so as to have more ambition to sell more polysilicon, instead of higher price. Moreover, the imported polysilicon into China turns more sufficient at this moment. Without the rush polysilicon demand or the limited supply issue, polysilicon prices gradually stabilize this week.