China Mono Grade, the OPIS benchmark assessment for polysilicon prices in the country, fell to CNY60.25 ($8.40)/kg) on Jan.16, down 51.8% year-on-year amid a growing supply glut.
Overall market sentiment remained bearish with many market participants expecting further price cuts ahead of the Lunar New Year festivities in early February. Polysilicon prices were in the range of CNY54-65/kg, OPIS learnt during its weekly market survey.
China produced a total of 1.45 million tons of polysilicon in 2023, up 81.4% year-on-year, data from China’s Silicon Industry Association showed. Current inventory levels stood at 60,000 MT and January’s production is expected to reach 170,000 MT, according to China’s Silicon Industry Association.
Market participants do not expect these inventories to be depleted soon as some companies had already procured January and early February cargoes and said that there was room for prices to fall further in the coming weeks.
The recent increase in wafer prices, stemming from wafer manufacturers trying to recoup previous months’ losses, is not expected to lend any support to polysilicon price gains as wafer demand has yet to recover fully.
Meanwhile, the Global Polysilicon Marker (GPM), the OPIS benchmark for polysilicon outside China was assessed at $26.063/kg on Jan.16, down 30.7% year-on-year tracking price declines in the Chinese market, OPIS data showed.
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 Singapore Solar Exchange in 2022 and now publishes the OPIS APAC Solar Weekly Report.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
4 comments
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.