Photovoltaic Giants Collectively Raised Prices!

Last week, the price of the photovoltaic industry chain was undercurrent.

It is reported that in the latest photovoltaic industry chain prices announced by the Silicon Industry Branch, the price of silicon wafers, which has been stable for more than a month, has fallen again. From the specific data:

The average transaction price of P-type M10 monocrystalline silicon wafers is 1.15 yuan/piece, down 6.5% from last week;

The average transaction price of N-type G10L monocrystalline silicon wafers is 1.08 yuan/piece, down 3.57% from last week;

The average transaction price of N-type G12R monocrystalline silicon wafers is 1.7 yuan/piece, which is the same as last week;

The average transaction price of P-type G12 monocrystalline silicon wafers is 1.5 yuan/piece, down 6.25% from last week;

The average transaction price of N-type G12 monocrystalline silicon wafers is 1.25 yuan/piece, which is the same as last week.

Since the beginning of June, the price of silicon wafers has been steadily declining, and the price of N-type G10L monocrystalline silicon wafers has dropped from 1.9 yuan/piece to 1.5 yuan/piece today, a drop of more than 20%.

The main reason for the large drop in the price of large-size silicon wafers is that the leading companies are accelerating the clearance of inventory, but the long-term low price of silicon wafers is a fatal blow to the entire photovoltaic industry chain.

The price war is intensifying, making the entire industry chain miserable. Recently, Longi Green Energy, a leading silicon wafer company, announced that it will increase the price of silicon wafers. It is reported that Longi silicon wafers officially quoted the price on August 26, with N-G10L quoted at 1.15 yuan/piece and N-G12R quoted at 1.3 yuan/piece. The new quotation increased by an average of 5 cents/piece.

The official announcement of the price increase by Longi this time is mainly to break the current dilemma of internal consumption in the price war. It is understood that after Longi officially announced the price increase, other mainstream silicon wafer manufacturers in the current market also simultaneously raised their product quotations, aiming to jointly promote the return of silicon wafer prices to a rational range.

Looking back at the photovoltaic market in the first half of this year, due to the intensified imbalance between supply and demand in the industry, the silicon wafer segment took the lead in entering an irrational price competition state. Although the first-tier manufacturers in the market maintained the industry's leading per-watt cost, the cost reduction speed was still slower than the market price decline. Silicon wafer manufacturers were in a serious cash loss state as a whole in Q2. Some manufacturers ranked in the first echelon saw a year-on-year decline in operating income of more than 50%, and a year-on-year decline in net profit of more than 150%.

According to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, in the first half of 2024, the output of polysilicon, silicon wafers, batteries, and modules at the domestic manufacturing end increased by more than 32% year-on-year. Among them, the output of polysilicon was about 1.06 million tons, a year-on-year increase of about 60.6%; the output of silicon wafers was about 402GW, a year-on-year increase of about 58.9%; the output of battery cells was about 310GW, a year-on-year increase of about 37.8%; and the output of modules was about 271GW, a year-on-year increase of about 32.2%.

Faced with continuous price declines, ending the current unsustainable industry losses as soon as possible is the common wish of all photovoltaic companies. This time, Longi and other silicon wafer manufacturers adjusted the silicon wafer prices at this time, obviously hoping to push the industry out of the quagmire of low-price competition and return to a healthier competitive environment by adjusting prices.

Cutting prices to grab the market is a common means of corporate competition. For companies, it is both simple and fast, but once the market falls into a price swamp, there is often no winner in the end. The photovoltaic industry is not "live streaming with goods", and it is not possible to solve the production capacity dilemma by shouting 9.9 free shipping.

In terms of long-term demand, the photovoltaic industry chain is still in a growth period. The continuous growth of green energy and high-tech markets is a direction of sustainable development. With the advancement of photovoltaic industry chain technology and large-scale production, costs will gradually be optimized, and this process requires a reasonable price mechanism to drive. As the cornerstone of the photovoltaic industry and semiconductor manufacturing, the price changes of silicon wafers are directly related to the pace of global energy transformation and technological innovation.

Low-price competition will ultimately fail to meet the market demand for high-performance silicon wafers. Under the premise of no guaranteed profits, low-quality products will inevitably flood the entire market. Therefore, as the trend of renewable energy accelerates, the demand for high-performance silicon wafers will inevitably increase significantly. While responding to this demand, investors and manufacturers must also face increased capital expenditures, which requires a reasonable increase in silicon wafer prices.

If prices do not reflect the true cost of production and supply, then quality and supply cannot be guaranteed. In the long run, reasonable price increases can motivate manufacturers to continue to invest and maintain the healthy development of the industry.

In addition, fluctuations in raw material and production costs are another important factor. Manufacturing high-quality silicon wafers is a process with high technical standards and strict management requirements. Rising raw material costs, energy price fluctuations, and continuous updates to production equipment and processes are all key reasons for driving up costs.

In the context of a healthy market economy, these cost increases need to be fed back into the pricing of end products. Considering the requirements of environmental protection, new environmental regulations and green tax policies have also affected the manufacturing process and its economics to some extent. The environmental value behind this needs to be reflected through the market mechanism, and the reasonable pricing of silicon wafers just reflects the producer's response to environmental responsibility.

The industry has never lacked the lowest price, but what it lacks is a reasonable price with good quality.

Reasonable profit levels encourage more R&D investment and make breakthrough progress in photovoltaic efficiency and performance. With the further expansion of production capacity and the improvement of production efficiency, the cost advantage will eventually be returned to the market. Although the rise in silicon wafer prices has brought pressure to individual links in the industrial chain in the short term, the pace of industry development and active investment in the future represented by it are reasonable and even necessary.