Taiwanese solar cell manufacturer, Motech, announced on December 26, 2014 that it will merge with Topcell Solar International Co. (TSi), and Motech will be the surviving company and remain the same company name post the merger.
The global demand is expected to reach 51.4GW in 2015, with an annual demand growth rate of 16.5% and an increased installation of 7GW compared to 2014, according to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce. In terms of the supply end, the Chinese makers has announced to expand production capacity in 2015, with an increase of 4.2GW in module production capacity, taking up 8.2% of the worldwide demand; non-Chinese module makers will increase production capacity by 1.1GW, which is approximately 2% of the worldwide demand.
United States Department of Commerce has announced its 2014 anti-dumping and countervailing duties final tariff ruling on December 17th. Tariffs for Chinese manufacturers are higher than the preliminary determination, while lowered slightly for Taiwanese makers. Chinese modules’ anti-dumping (AD) tariffs range from 26.71% to 165.04%; while the countervailing duties (CVD) range from 27.64% to 49.79%.
The worldwide solar market demand in 2014 was approximately at 44GW, even though the China market did not perform as well as expectations, due to the continuous growth in Japan and the U.S. market, the supply and demand remained stable. At the end of 2014, the overall supply chain maintained a solid utilization rate, while China’s tier-one module manufacturers also continued to break shipment records.
Polysilicon manufacturers in Japan, China and Korea are improving their production processes in an effort to lower costs, according to EnergyTrend, a division of the Taiwan-based market intelligence firm TrendForce. In October, the Japanese firm Tokuyama began producing polysilicon at its Malaysia plant, which has a capacity of 13,800 tons. Initially, Tokuyama is expected to reach 70% capacity. The South Korean polysilicon manufacturer OCI will boost capacity to 10,000 tons. Hanwha Chemical, another South Korean firm, will add 3,000 to 5,000 tons of production capacity.