NEW YORK: Solar manufacturers are being battered by higher costs and smaller margins after an unexpected shortage of a critical raw material. That is driving up production costs as panel prices continue to decline, and dragging down earnings for manufacturers in China, the world’s biggest supplier. Polysilicon prices vary by region. That’s well below the record set in 2008, when the solar industry first began to boom and prices spiked to $475 a kilogramme. Solar companies’ exposure to prices will vary, in part depending on the length of their supply contracts.

Source: Bangkok Post November 14, 2017 06:11 UTC