The fact that the United States and the European Union have imposed trade sanctions against Chinese cell and module manufacturers has done little to lessen the impact of Chinese manufacturers on world pricing. While there are pricing variations among markets, Chinese manufacturers reacted quickly to these sanctions. Some found creative ways to circumvent these sanctions and others decided to open fabs in key installation markets like India or in other countries with favorable production conditions, which could be used as hubs to serve markets like the U.S. and Europe. At the same time the Chinese PV market went through another incredible ramp-up cycle. China's official installation target for this year amounted to a hefty 18.1 GW, already eighty percent more than total installations in 2014. As it turned out this summer, China actually installed around 20 GW just in the first half of this year! It is now expected to reach 25 to 30 GW for the entire year. With such a domestic market driving demand, Chinese polysilicon, wafer, cell and module manufacturers were racing to expand production capacities to seize this spectacular uptake in demand. Such a surge in demand would normally have increased prices in China and the rest of the world. This would have undoubtedly happened, had not the Chinese government started ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...