Solar module prices remain at 13-week low, spread against M10 cell narrows from January high

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The Chinese Module Marker (CMM), OPIS’s price assessment for free-on-board (FOB) China M10 mono module, was unchanged from the previous week to remain at a 13-week low of $0.224/W on May 2 (see chart), OPIS data show.

The market traded sideways for the week with several Asian countries, including China, on a brief hiatus for the May 1 Labor Day holiday.

Lower-than-expected overseas demand helped to keep CMM at multi-week low but price movements were again mixed across the rest of the photovoltaic chain with the Global Polysilicon Marker (GPM), OPIS’ assessment for polysilicon produced outside of China, falling 3.01% week on week to $35.831/kg.

Despite the falling raw material costs, expectations of firm domestic demand in China might have helped to offset the subdued overseas demand for modules, allowing sellers to resist lowering their offers for FOB China modules.

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The price spread between FOB China module and FOB China M10 cell however remained at a narrow $0.084/W on May 2, an over 30% drop from a high of $0.123/W on January 12 (see chart). The spread has stayed under $0.10/W since January 31, suggesting sliding margins for non-integrated module producers. The price premium n-type modules command over p-type will add to margins but availability for the former is largely limited to the Tier-1 manufacturers for now.

OPIS, a Dow Jones company, provides energy prices, news, data and analysis on gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, LPG/NGL, coal, metals, and chemicals as well as renewable fuels and environmental commodities. It acquired pricing data assets from Singapore Solar Exchange in 2022 and now publishes the OPIS APAC Solar Weekly Report.

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