“Taiwan’s first-tier cell manufacturers could stick to the price of US$0.40/watt before mid-June because Chinese manufacuturers rushed their shipments to the US ahead of time. However, price gap between Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers has shortened within simply a month after Taiwanese manufacturers lost Chinese orders by the end of June. ” said Corrine Lin, analyst of EnergyTrend, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based market intelligence firm TrendForce.

“Although the decline in wafer prices was not as severe as cell prices, Taiwan’s wafer manufacturers managed to fully utilize their productions strategically. Yet, wafer prices may be lowered further as it requires more time to clear out wafer stock during low season,”

In order to respond to the US-China anti-dumping and countervailing investigation, many Chinese manufacturers increased shipment proportion to the US in 1H14. Trina Solar was the most aggressive one, with shipments to the US representing more than 60% in 2Q.

“Chinese modules shipped to the US increased month by month from January to May, 2014 and it did not begin to decrease until June. The total export to the US exceeded 2.3GW in 1H14. If taking into consideration the cumulated module capacity of US manufacturers, such as First Solar, SunPower, and REC– near 4GW, US will have enough modules to achieve its target installation of 6GW. ,” added Lin.

“Therefore, no matter what the US-China anti-dumping preliminary verdict turns out to be in July 24th, it will not have actual impacts on Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers until next year. Before the result is announced, manufacturers in China and Taiwan can look for strategies to cope with US’ decision, manufacturers in Japan and Korea can also find bigger opportunities,”