Liu Yiyang, deputy secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Association, believes that with the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry today, countless examples have proved that between losing market share and maintaining price and reducing market share, enterprises that adopt low-price competition often have a worrying prospect.

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China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) and relevant departments have been calling for the prevention of vicious competition in the industry for a long time, and the association announced and updated the minimum cost of photovoltaic modules on October 18 and November 20 respectively.

RMB 0.68/W is the lowest cost disclosed by the association on October 18 (module production cost including tax, excluding transportation and miscellaneous costs). At that time, the association said that the cost of 0.68 yuan/watt was already the lowest cost of outstanding enterprises in the current photovoltaic industry under the premise of ensuring product quality, and winning the bid below the cost was suspected of violating the law.

On November 20, the Association updated its November cost data, taking into account the minimum necessary expenses on the basis of the "floor price" in October, and raised the minimum cost price of modules to RMB 0.69/W.

Judging from the latest disclosure of the changes in the bidding and bidding prices of module centralized procurement projects, the leading enterprises and key enterprises are responding to the "anti-involution" initiative of the association and relevant departments.

According to the industry information agency Sobi Photovoltaic Network announced on the evening of December 17 the bidding of the photovoltaic module procurement project of the 2 million kilowatt photovoltaic project in Tacheng and Buxel County, Xinjiang, Trina Solar (688599. SH) and GCL Integration (002506.SZ) shared Shenergy's 2.4GW module procurement orders at RMB 0.72/W and RMB 0.682/W, respectively.

The reporter noted that because the bidding time for the project was October 29, that is, the association had not updated the minimum cost price of 0.69 yuan/watt at that time, the winning bid price of the two bids was higher than the "reserve price" of 0.68 yuan/watt set by the association at that time.

On December 9, PowerChina Corporation (PowerChina) Co., Ltd. (PowerChina) announced the opening of its bids for the 2025 PV module framework procurement of up to 51 GW.

In the bidding quotation of the PV TOPCon technology route, the quotation range of the PV TOPCon technology route is between 0.62 yuan/watt and 0.76 yuan/watt, and the average price is 0.68 yuan/watt. In other words, the quotations of leading enterprises and core enterprises in the industry are not less than 0.69 yuan/watt, which exceeds the cost reference price updated by the industry association in November. 

Liu Yiyang, deputy secretary-general of the association, publicly stated that with the cost reference price of 0.69 yuan/watt announced by the association in November as the red line, the industry leaders and backbone enterprises are all at the upper end, which reflects that in the case of low prices in the photovoltaic industry chain, the leading and backbone enterprises can still maintain the objectivity and rationality of the quotation, and are unwilling to fight the involution type of "price war".

"PowerChina's centralized procurement of photovoltaic modules is the largest centralized procurement order for photovoltaic modules in history, with a strong weather vane significance." Liu Yiyang said that today, with the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry, countless examples have proved that between losing market share and maintaining price and reducing market share, enterprises that adopt low-price competition often have a worrying prospect.

"PowerChina's module procurement scale has reached a record high, which is an important indicator of the pricing trend of the module market in the future." Hua Chuang Securities said that the quotation trend reflects that the leading enterprises and core enterprises have shown considerable prudence and rationality in their pricing strategies, avoiding the price war that may lead to the compression of industry profits in the past. All major players quoted no less than RMB 0.69/W, indicating that the industry's self-discipline has begun to show results, and the willingness of all links in the industrial chain to raise prices has increased significantly.

"Combined with the analysis of product quality and the current market environment, it is expected that the winning bidders will be dominated by industry leaders with quotations of not less than 0.69 yuan per watt." The agency also said that with the gradual implementation of the industry's self-regulatory mechanism, the imbalance between supply and demand in the market is expected to be significantly improved, which in turn will promote the recovery of prices and profitability. Considering that the first quarter is usually the off-season for the industry and the implementation of self-discipline rules, with the gradual recovery of downstream demand after the Spring Festival, the price of the industrial chain may usher in more positive changes.

The winning bid price is lower than the cost has become a problem that plagues the photovoltaic manufacturing industry. Before the implementation of PV "anti-involution" related initiatives and measures, there were cases of ultra-low price winning bids in the bidding market.

On October 12, China Resources Power Yiyuan Xili 150MW agricultural photovoltaic complementary photovoltaic power generation project photovoltaic module equipment procurement bid opened. A total of 14 enterprises participated in the bidding, and the bidding unit price was 0.5308 yuan/watt to 0.7255 yuan/watt, the average price was only 0.64 yuan/watt, and the bidding price was 0.53 yuan/watt.

However, the reporter noted that even if the overall trend of "involution" competition in the bidding and bidding quotations of modules has eased, there are still many companies that are not included in the list of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Standard Conditions for the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Industry" or have low visibility to quote prices below 0.69 yuan/W and participate in market competition.

According to the news released by the industry information platform Zhihui Photovoltaic on December 18, a few days ago, Xinjiang Electric Power Bazhou Power Generation Company's Bazhou Pumped Storage Project supporting the 600,000 kilowatt photovoltaic project of Bohu County Photovoltaic Module Equipment Procurement Project (hereinafter referred to as "National Energy Xinjiang Project") was announced in public bidding.

Judging from the winning bidders, the bidding price of the winning candidates for the project fell between 0.625 yuan/watt and 0.631 yuan/watt, which was lower than the "reserve price" set by the association. Specifically, Shanghai Electric (Rights Protection) Group Hengxi Photovoltaic Technology (Nantong) Co., Ltd. quoted 0.625 yuan/watt, ReneSola Solar Technology Co., Ltd. quoted 0.631 yuan/watt, Hesheng Silicon Co., Ltd. quoted 0.629 yuan/watt, and ReneSola Solar Technology Co., Ltd. quoted 0.631 yuan/watt.