SUN SLOWED BY ANTI-DUMPING TENSIONS

Anti-Dumping Cases between U.S., China, and Europe Render August Outlook Sluggish

2012-08-03 (Energy Trend)

“European solar companies jointly filed an anti-dumping complaint to the EU against Chinese solar firms. In the meantime, the Chinese government is debating launching an anti-dumping investigation on multi-Si product imports from foreign companies. To top it all off, the United States’ final ruling on the anti-dumping and anti-countervailing cases will be decided in October, which ushers in uncertainty for the global solar market…

“…[S]olar demand for August has suffered a huge setback as prices and orders take a steep dive. Midstream and downstream solar firms have taken an extremely conservative stance on procurement with spot prices continuing to plummet…[T]he market outlook for August is extremely bleak…OEM orders are showing a pronounced downturn. Due to the sharp demand decline and the fact that the products from 2Q12 have yet to be completely digested, companies have started to adjust their product lines.”

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“…[C]ompanies have been placing orders that just meet suppliers' minimum order quantity (MOQ) and relying on the spot market to supply their remaining demand, in an effort to cut costs…[S]pot prices continue to dip…[The] high-efficiency Si wafers…contract price remained above US$1.13/piece, but a price of US$1.1/piece has appeared in the spot market…[And] payment conditions have become more flexible…For major manufacturers, polysilicon deals were conducted in the $20/kg range, whereas prices from second-tier manufacturers fell around $18/kg…[Because of] the importance of product quality…products from the four major manufacturers will be favored…

“…For silicon wafers, significant price adjustments have been implemented…With regard to solar cells and modules, factors such as Europe’s bleak market outlook, increasing inventory levels, and trade investigation rumors have led to a decreasing price trend. Price for solar cells was $0.431/Watt, 5.27% lower than last week’s price. For modules, the lowest price was $0.5/Watt, whereas the average price has dropped to $0.741/Watt, a 0.27% decrease. Thin film products have dropped below the $0.7/Watt threshold to $0.698/Watt, a 1.97% decrease…”

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