Chinese PV Industry Brief: Longi unexpectedly raises PV wafer prices

Solar manufacturer Longi has unexpectedly raised the prices of all its PV wafers via an update on the company website. ‘G1′ products, measuring 158.75-223mm, now cost RMB4.95 (US$0.77) per piece, up 2.5%, and 166mm M6 wafers are 2.4% more expensive, at RMB5.32 (US$0.83). The price of M10, 182-247 mm wafers has raised 5.1% to RMB6.15 per piece (US$0.96). Longi had begun to reduce its wafers prices in May last year and this is the first time prices have increased again.

Polysilicon supplier and solar cell maker Tongwei has agreed to buy 104,800,000 wafers with a size of 182-210mm from solar wafer manufacturer Shuangliang Eco-Energy. The products will be delivered between January 2022 and December 2024. The value of the supply agreement is estimated at around RMB6.3 billion ($984 million).

Solar manufacturer Yingli said this week its aggregate PV module capacity in Tianjin, Hengshui and Lixian has reached 8GW. In a statement to pv magazine, the company said 6.8GW of this capacity is already operational and the remaining capacity will come online by the end of March. Furthermore, another 7GW of capacity is currently under construction, 4GW of which is expected to be operational by the end of this year, while the other 3GW should be online by the end of next year.

Polysilicon maker and inverter company TBEA released its financial outlook for 2021 on Monday. The conglomerate expects net profits to be in the range of RMB6.8bn to RMB7.3bn, which would respresent a YoY increase of 173% to 194%. TBEA said the excellent performance is majorly due to the increase in both polysilicon price and sales volume in the past year.