Anti-dumping case raises price of solar cells

TrendForce states that the solar cell price has gone up to US$0.5/Watt. According to TrendForce’s research, in addition to high-efficiency products, prices of the products with a conversion efficiency of 16.6% saw increase as well. According to TrendForce’s database, the 16.6% products’prices ranged from US$0.45/Watt and US$0.48/Watt in 1H’May, but the latest price quotes became US$0.49/Watt to US$0.51, while price quotes of the high-efficiency products (with conversion efficiency of 17.2% and above) hiked to US$0.55/Watt and US$0.6/Watt, representing an increase of 5%-10%. According to TrendForce’s survey, although the manufacturers said that at present Chinese clients have not assented to the price increase, with the pressure from the U.S. anti-dumping and anti-countervailing case, they will eventually cave and accept the price increase. Moreover, the price uptrend may even affect the upstream wafer makers. Upstream players stated that they have heard that the downstream players attempted to jack up prices, and they have tried to confirm if the price quotes were truly the closing prices. On the other hand, wafer manufacturers also prepared to increase the price quotes, and have tested the market demand by increasing price quotes on certain clients but received negative feedback. The clients used the flat prices in China as an excuse to ask the wafer manufacturers not to increase prices. TrendForce indicates the short-term market development is in Taiwanese solar companies’ favor, therefore, the prices will likely go up. However, the preliminary ruling on the U.S. anti-dumping and anti-countervailing case does not affect Chinese solar makers’ solar modules, which limits the growth momentum. TrendForce projects that solar cell prices will rise by 5%-10% and wafer prices by 3%-6%.