polysilicon suppliers are strategically raising prices seeing solid downstream PV system deployment, although there is no obvious polysilicon shortage.

PV and 2nd grade polysilicon prices improve substantially this week. On one hand, polysilicon suppliers are strategically raising prices seeing solid downstream PV system deployment, although there is no obvious polysilicon shortage. On the other hand, many wafer companies stop trading polysilicon in the spot in expectation of further polysilicon price uptrend. Under tight wafer supply, wafer companies are accepting higher polysilicon prices to meet their increasing orders leading to the polysilicon price increase this week.

Overall wafer prices are increasing substantially this week as well. Shortage of high efficiency multi wafers is especially driving up its prices in Taiwan and China. In addition, solar companies in China and Taiwan are demanding more wafers in Jan to prepare inventory for the upcoming lunar New Year holiday in Feb when labor will be reduced. However, due to lack of headcounts and capital, many wafer companies are unable to immediately rerun its idled capacities to increase output. Besides limited supply and increasing demand, mono and multi wafer companies are also raising prices to reflect increasing procurement cost under the polysilicon price uptrend. As such, overall wafer prices experience increase this week.

Overall cell prices also increase this week. Cell companies are raising their prices to reflect the higher procurement cost resulting from the wafer price uptrend. In addition, demand for cell is increasing as many Chinese module companies stockpile inventory to prepare for the lunar New Year holiday. On the other hand, since module price remains stable, price cut pressure for cell eases giving room for some price increase this week. Solar module price remains stable this week as system developers stop pressuring module prices. Module demand in China, Japan, and the US is still promising sustaining the module prices this week