Mar 31 2008
Research and Markets has announced the addition of 2007 China Solar Grade Wafer or Ingot Industry Research Report to their offering.
Because of a continuous shortage of wafer and a great increase of downstream demand, more and more investors are entering into the wafer industry and many manufacturers are also expanding their capacity rapidly. Capacity expansion is easy, while wafer shipment increase is fairly difficult for the shortage of polysilicon.
In 2006, solar multi crystal silicon wafer shipment was 110MW, while single crystal silicon wafer was more than 280MW, and this situation is very different from that of the international market, where the multi crystal silicon wafer shipment is almost twice that of single crystal silicon wafer.
In China, the single crystal silicon wafer is 2.7 times of multi crystal silicon wafer, and this is because that manufacturing of single crystal silicon wafer is easier than multi crystal silicon wafer. The major equipment can be purchased from the home market at a low cost, while multi crystal silicon wafer equipment, such as the DSS furnace can only be obtained from the overseas market at a high cost.
However according to the forecast of the China Solar Grade Wafer or Ingot Industry Research Report in 2007 , this situation will be changed in 2012, when China local multi crystal silicon wafer shipment will be 1.5 times that of single crystal silicon wafer because of large multi crystal wafer projects and downstream clients demand
In 2006, China wafer revenue was 899 million US dollars, compared to 309 million US dollars in 2005; it had an increase of 191%. While 2007, the revenue reached 2226 million US dollars, and the corresponding increase is 148%, and it will keep at a high increasing rate in the future.