The European Union (EU) has imposed a tentative anti-dumping tariff of 11.8% on solar products imported from China and is negotiating with the China government. If both sides reach a settlement, China-based makers will have to hike product prices and thus become less competitive. If a settlement is not reached, a final tariff much higher than 11.8% will be imposed. Either result will be conducive to steady development of the global solar industry, according to Taiwan-based solar wafer maker Sino-American Silicon (SAS).
Solar wafer makers continued to struggle in the first quarter. China-based tier-one solar wafer makers such s GCL-Poly and Yingli Solar continued to see severe net losses and many other peers shut down operations. In addition, solar wafer makers have been seeing a shortage of funds to procure material. A lack of solar wafer supply may cause shortages in the solar market.
According to Lin Shih-Yuan, general manager of Taiwan-based solar wafer firm Green Energy Technology (GET), Taiwan-based solar wafer firms have been optimistic about price increase in the second half of 2013. The firm has been running at full capacity in the second quarter and expects gross margin to turn positive in the fourth quarter, said Lin.
Doris Hsu, president of SAS, noted that prices of solar wafer have been increasig mildly in the second quarter and expects the trend to continue in the third quarter.
GET added that in the past few months the prices of solar cells have been increasing due to expectations of the EU punitive tariff. However, for the past few weeks, the price increase has been slowing down, said GET.
