Taiwan-based tier-one solar cell firms plan to increase prices by 5-10%. According to downstream solar firms in Taiwan, solar cell makers previously did try to increase prices in the second half of 2012 but in the end were not successful.
The low season has yet to affect solar firms significantly as Taiwan-based solar cell makers Neo Solar Power (NSP) and Gintech both reported December revenues with small on-month decreases. Solartech, on the other hand, reported December 2012 revenues with an over 50% on-month decrease.
According to solar firms, the current quotes for solar cells with 16.8% and 17.2% conversion efficiency are US$0.32-0.34/watt and US$0.34-0.36/watt respectively, an increase around 5-10%. Solar cell makers wanted to increase the quotes for 17.2% efficiency products to US$0.38-0.39/watt, but were not successful.
Most Taiwan-based tier-one solar firms had medium to high capacity utilization rates in December and expect clear order visibility for January and February. Therefore, a price hike is possible.
Taiwan has been seeing increasing orders due to an installation rush in Japan before the possible incentive cut in March and due to transfer of orders from China.
