PVinsights: panel price downtrend ceased temporarily due to the EUR and RMB appreciation against USD
Overall module price is still under certain degree of pressure. Since EUR appreciated against USD by almost 4% to 1.09 this week from 1.05, it led to a relatively improved module price in Europe.
Overall module price is still under certain degree of pressure. Yet, EUR appreciated against USD by almost 4% to 1.09 this week from 1.05, it led to a relatively improved module price in Europe. Chinese module suppliers gradually used the third-party OEM approach to export their modules to the EU with a lower price than the minimum price. In the US, the price pressure is enlarged; in order to enhance the project returns, some solar system developers tend to negotiate a lower price with module suppliers. In China, the dim demand continued to get the quotes down. To sum up, the module price stabilize mainly due to the appreciation of EUR and RMB against USD.
The inventory pressure overwhelmed some major wafer suppliers and made wafer price drop further this week. To deal with the increasing inventory, Chinese 1st-tier multi-crystalline wafer suppliers had the price correction to gain the orders from their clients. Affected by their possible production utilization rate cut, solar cell players were conservative to their wafer procurement activities. With the diminishing demand, solar wafer makers had to adjust their price down to stimulate the demand. Some Chinese 1st-tier mono-crystalline wafer producers shifted their shipment pressure by expanding their PV cell OEM orders to consume their own mono wafers. Solar mono price competition remained fiercely among 2nd and 3rd-tier mono-crystalline wafer producers. Because the mono-crystalline wafer demand is yet to recover, the price is continuously decreasing this week.
Influenced by the appreciation of EUR against USD, the price of poly-silicon from European player is stable this week, but others in Korea, Japan, and China are still adjusting their prices down further. In addition, due to the downstream wafer producers in China cut the wafer price down, so they tried to balance out the squeezed margin to poly-silicon producers. As a result, the price of poly-silicon is still bearish this week.