Wafer Prices Keep Grinding Lower, Enterprises Pin Hopes on Policies [SMM Comment]

This week, wafer prices continued to fall, with N-type 183 wafers priced at 0.8-0.824 yuan/piece, 210R wafers quoted at 0.895-0.925 yuan/piece, and 210mm wafers quoted at 1.099-1.125 yuan/piece. The main reason for the wafer price decline this week was that multiple enterprises, pressured by inventory, resorted to price cuts to clear inventory. As of now, except for two top-tier players still holding prices firm, most other enterprises have reduced prices to near the lower end of the range. Based on the current wafer selling prices, wafers of all sizes have already incurred a cash cost loss of approximately 0.01-0.02 yuan/piece. However, even so, some enterprises still chose to ramp up production in August, and the overall production cuts were still only around 2 GW. If enterprises rely too much on medium and long-term policy adjustments and neglect short-term supply-demand balance, wafer prices may still struggle to stop falling and stabilize.