Wafer and Cell Price Trend in Week3,2022

Wafers
Wafer prices remained largely stable this week, where mono-Si G1 and M6 had slightly risen. The prosperity of market transactions has recovered significantly with the imminent arrival of Chinese New Year, and the wafer end is gradually upward adjusting its utilization in order to fulfill the constantly growing demand for cells and modules, where mono-Si wafers are sitting at a relatively stable price level due to the increment in supply. A number of previous orders that were suspended due to exorbitant module prices are currently propelling under a steady pace, which ascends the demand for mono-Si G1 and M6 wafers. The mainstream concluded prices for G1 and M6 wafers had marginally risen to roughly RMB 4.8/pc and RMB 4.96/pc respectively this week, while M10 and G12 wafers were concluded at approximately RMB 5.85/pc and RMB 7.7/pc respectively. 

An observation on the production, operation, and shipment of the wafer sector denotes that the signals in recovered end demand and the stocking demand prior to the impending arrival of Chinese New Year have prompted the downstream sector to accelerate shipment speed on a continual basis in order to fulfill downstream demand for cells and modules, which is why the wafer sector is also steady rising in operating rate. First-tier businesses have increased their operating rate to roughly 60-70% now.

Cells
Cell quotations remained stable on the weaker end this week, and the apparent recovery signals from the end market is followed by revitalized market transactions. Several cell businesses attempted to raise their quotations so as to expand profitability, though the degree of acceptance has been rather low from the module end, and the momentum in supporting the desired inflation is slightly scarce. There were no apparent fluctuations in mainstream quotations from the cell market this week aside from a structural shortage in mono-Si M6 cells due to production schedule issues, where the mainstream concluded price had slightly risen to roughly RMB 1.06/W, while M10 and G12 were still sitting at concluded prices of approximately RMB 1.08/W and RMB 1.05/W respectively. The overall capacity rate of cell businesses is expected to be about 60-70% for January amidst steady improvement in profitability under marginal reduction in wafer prices, together with the slight recovery in cell demand yielded before Chinese New Year.