Silicone Industry Branch: Supply Shortage Partially Relieved, Polysilicon Prices Stabilize.

The Silicon Industry Sub-association released the weekly review of monocrystalline silicon wafers on January 23rd. This week, the price of silicon wafers remained stable, with the average transaction price of N-type G10L monocrystalline silicon wafers (182*183.75mm/130m/256mm) stabilizing at 1.18 yuan/piece; N-type G12R monocrystalline silicon wafers (182*210mm/130m) at 1.3 yuan/piece; and N-type G12 monocrystalline silicon wafers (210*210mm/150m) at 1.55 yuan/piece. The downstream market has not yet accepted the new price hikes, and the price of silicon wafers is expected to remain stable before the Chinese New Year. The main reason for the stable price of silicon wafers this week is the alleviation of the supply shortage. Professional battery companies have started to go on holiday, leading to a decrease in downstream procurement demand. The shipment pace of silicon wafers has slowed down accordingly, with inventories starting to accumulate in January. Therefore, in this round of negotiations, there is currently no driving force for the price of silicon wafers to increase. In addition, this week, silicon wafer production companies have maintained their current production capacity. According to statistics, the operating rates of two frontline enterprises this week are maintained at 60% and 55%, while integrated enterprises are operating at rates between 60% and 80%, and the rest are operating at rates between 40% and 80%. The silicon wafer production in January is expected to remain at 46GW. This week, battery and module prices remained stable, with the transaction price of M10 monocrystalline TOPCon battery cells staying at 0.29 yuan/W; and the price of 182mm TOPCon double-sided double-glass modules remaining at 0.68 yuan/W. Given these conditions and the weakening demand in the downstream market, it is unlikely that the price of silicon wafers will increase further in January. In the medium to long term, the inventory levels of silicon wafers and batteries are relatively low, so even if the end demand in the first quarter is lower than expected, upstream companies can adjust their production rates to mitigate supply-demand contradictions.