New Orders Renegotiated: Domestic and Imported High-Purity Quartz Sand Prices Both Decline [SMM Analysis]

Recently, domestic crucible and some integrated companies have renegotiated new orders for crucible inner layer quartz sand with imported sand companies. According to SMM, the renegotiated prices have decreased compared to this year's long-term contract prices, with a drop exceeding 30%. Imported sand companies are offering discounts to ensure subsequent capacity expansion. Following the reduction in imported sand prices, domestic inner layer sand prices have also started to decline, and downstream crucible prices have followed suit, breaking the four-month stability.

According to SMM, the newly signed prices for imported sand have dropped to 90,000-100,000 yuan/mt, a decrease of over 30% compared to this year's long-term contract prices for imported sand. SMM attributes the price drop to two main factors. Firstly, the recent limited demand in the domestic PV market, with wafer production schedules dropping from over 70GW at the beginning of the year to less than 50GW recently, weakening price support. Secondly, the continuous decline in wafer prices has increased resistance to high quartz sand prices. After the drop in domestic sand prices, the high prices of imported sand have become less acceptable to domestic wafer and crucible companies, leading to a decrease in imported sand prices.

Following the decline in imported sand prices, the support for domestic sand prices has also weakened. Recently, the center of domestic inner layer sand prices has continuously decreased, with current market prices dropping to around 60,000 yuan/mt. It is expected that crucible companies will continue to have a desire to bargain down prices. However, due to cost support, the prices of middle and outer layer domestic sand have not been adjusted in this round.

For future price forecasts, SMM believes that quartz sand prices are expected to continue declining in the near term. The ongoing weakening of market demand, combined with the reduced competitive product support from the drop in imported sand prices, has led quartz sand companies to lower their prices, primarily to secure orders through discounts. It is expected that the low-end prices of domestic inner layer quartz sand may further decrease to around 55,000 yuan/mt.