(iTers News) - DuPont announced that it vwould stop its silicon thin-film operations by the end of 2014 with gradually phasing  out the silicon thin-film production lines at their subsidiary company. As a result, silicon thin-film market share is likely to keep falling in the short run, according to EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce.



“Judging from recent price quotes, silicon thin-film price quotes is at US$0.58/watt while silicon module is at US$0.6/watt. Price difference has decreased from the original US$0.1/watt to US$0.02/watt. Therefore, silicon thin-film product no longer holds price competitiveness,” said Arthur Hsu, research manager of EnergyTrend. “Meanwhile, silicon module conversion efficiency is around 17.2% while silicon thin-film remains at 8% to 10%. Efficiency gap between the two will continue to increase as silicon module efficiency goes up.”


The closure of silicon thin-film operations was partly caused by the halting of new technology development by equipment manufacturers. In fact, relevant manufacturers were hoping to rely on Tandem technology’s commercialization to improve silicon thin-film product efficiency. However, after acquiring Oerlikon’s thin-film business, Tokyo Electron has ended Tandem technology development, which crushed thin-film manufacturers’ final hope.


This Week’s Market Price Quotes


Mostly due to some manufacturers’ declining contract prices, polysilicon price slightly dropped 0.13% to US$20.324/kg. Multi-si wafer continued to fall slightly. This week’s price arrived at US$1.004/piece, which is a 0.4% dip. Impacted by DuPont’s closing of their silicon thin-film production lines, this week’s thin-film price decreased below US$0.6/watt to US$0.597/watt, dropping by 1.32%. The prices for other products remained unchanged this week.


(Credit: TrendForce)


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