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.
Industry players differed on where they saw prices heading after last week’s key polysilicon conference in China, where the prevailing sentiment was bearish. Low values ​​of around CNY 60/kg, generally considered the cost figure for Chinese polysilicon, remained the majority of figures revealed in OPIS’s market survey earlier this week, although talk of a price recovery has emerged.
The source, which saw polysilicon rising to 67 yuan/kg, credited lower prices from the previous two weeks as manufacturers clear their inventories before the end of the second quarter. One polysilicon manufacturer’s inventory, estimated at 10,000 MT last week, was said to have halved by the end of the week. Power outages have affected operating speeds at monocrystalline plants, the source said, pointing to cuts in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, and claiming the same in Leshan, Sichuan.
Discussions about price increases extended even downstream. Disc prices have bottomed out, most market participants agreed, and the disc segment is starting to signal possible increases. Multiple sources confirmed to OPIS that limited new wafer capacity will come online in the second half of 2023, potentially keeping more than 140 GW of annual nameplate capacity out of the market, according to OPIS data.
Not to mention, the specter of oversupply still looms over China’s polysilicon market. “It’s clear there is too much polysilicon,” one contact echoed, while another said “inventories are very large overall.” A new capacity of around 120,000 tonnes in June by a major producer has been delayed, but only to the third quarter.
OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides energy prices, news, data and analysis on gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG/NGL, coal, metals and chemicals, as well as 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.
