In a new weekly update pv magazineOPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides a quick overview of the most important price trends in the global solar industry.
China is estimated to produce around 48 GW of wafers in April, which is 7% more than in March. Industry players agreed that wafer production is expanding faster than expected, and some who had expected wafer sales to continue sideways shifted to a more bearish outlook.
A small dip could be a sign that wafer prices will gradually decline in the near future, following the footsteps of upstream poly silicon’s sustained decline in the weeks prior. The weakness in the wafer segment comes with the arrival of China’s high purity quartz (HPQ) imports, suggesting that wafer makers should be able to ramp up capacity now.
Although the current HPQ shortage has eased, concerns about future shortages continue to affect the market. Given Sibelco’s plans to double HPQ production capacity at its Spruce Pine plant by 2025, and the fact that Spruce Pine in North Carolina is the world’s single largest source of high-grade quality, there may be some good news for wafer manufacturers—albeit far on the horizon.
OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides energy prices, news, data and analysis on gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG/NGL, coal, metals and chemicals, and renewable fuels and environmental commodities. It acquired pricing data assets from the Singapore Solar Exchange in 2022 and now publishes the OPIS APAC Solar Weekly report.
