The price of photovoltaic materials (silicon chips) has officially declined since December, and the decline is likely to continue next year
28 August 2023
According to the research of TrendForce, due to the low willingness to purchase silicon chips, and with the coming of the holidays at the end of the year and the Spring Festival overseas, the terminal demand has entered the traditional slack season of the industry. The leading silicon chip suppliers have begun to significantly reduce the price of silicon chips. The trend of price reduction has also spread from silicon chips to materials such as silicon materials and battery chips. While the price of silicon chips has begun to fall, silicon chip suppliers have also accelerated the clearance of inventory to avoid more severe subsequent price decline of silicon chips. Considering the coming off-season of demand, the silicon chip industry wants to reduce the operating rate, but at the same time, new entrants continue to join in and accelerate the construction of new capacity. Due to inventory pressure and industrial competition, the price of silicon chips has obviously declined since December, with the highest monthly drop of 19.5%, such as M10 silicon chips.
TrendForce further said that the prices of silicon materials, cell chips and photovoltaic modules will inevitably fall to the first quarter of next year. Since this year, the price of silicon materials has continued to rise, and the orders of the first tier silicon material manufacturers were still full in November. However, the quotations of the second tier silicon material manufacturers have actually declined significantly since the middle and late November. Since December, the growth rate of new orders has slowed down. After the first-line silicon manufacturers have successively fulfilled the previous orders, the stock accumulation situation has emerged. However, the new silicon production capacity is still accelerating month by month, and the supply shortage situation is no longer. It is estimated that the silicon price in December was about 275 yuan per kg, down 8.3% month by month.
