Slow start but a strong ending to come for 2012 China solar market,says IMS Research Press release;Jackie Chang,DIGITIMES[Thursday 11 October 2012]China's domestic solar market made a slow start to the year,with just 720MW installed in the first half,according to IMS Research.However,installations are forecast to surge in the second half,with more than 4GW of solar PV installations to be completed,taking full year installations to 5GW.
In September,China announced its latest Five-Year Plan for solar development which targets 20GW of solar PV systems and 1GW of solar thermal power to be completed by 2015.However,this plan did not bring the levels of financial stimulus that were expected."While old issues like grid-connection and power transmission have still not been solved,new issues emerged in the second quarter of 2012,such as worsening bankability,poor credit conditions and a general slowdown of the Chinese economy,"remarked Frank Xie,IMS Research's senior PV analyst based in Shanghai."Many projects are said to have completed the bidding process;however,they are not yet under construction.Integrators are prioritizing projects to be completed by year end,and there will be a huge surge in installations in the final quarter of the year."
The year 2012 has been difficult for China's huge supplier base and utilization rates remained low as a result of a strong focus on cost control and caution over the ongoing EU trade investigation into China-based solar products.Average utilization levels for polysilicon,wafers,cells and module manufacturers all declined in the third quarter;all were lower than 60%.Despite wafer production capacity in China declining in the third quarter,average utilization fell to just 58%;as an increasing number of cell manufacturers favored sourcing competitively priced wafers from third parties at a lower cost than manufacturing them in house.Utilization rates are forecast to recover slightly in the fourth quarter in response to the predicted boom in domestic installations.
Both inverter shipments and revenues declined in the second quarter of 2012 compared with the previous quarter as a result of weak demand.According to IMS Research,the first half of 2012 saw inverter shipments of just 700MW,less than half of the amount shipped in the second half of 2011.However,Xie holds a positive view for future inverter shipments in the second half of the year,adding:"The situation is set to improve,and China's rapidly expanding inverter supplier base is forecast to ship more than 4GW of inverters in the second half of 2012."
