As the upstream key material of the photovoltaic industry chain, the demand for slurry is closely related to the overall development of the photovoltaic industry. In 2018, the global installed capacity of photovoltaics reached approximately 110GW. The demand for solar cell front silver paste was about 2,300 tons, the back silver paste demand was about 700 tons, and the back aluminum paste demand was about 25,000 tons. In 2018, the global solar cell paste market The scale is about 14.7 billion yuan.
For a long time, relying on long-term technological accumulation, strong financial strength and rich industrial experience, Heraeus, DuPont, Samsung and Shuohe, the four imported slurry giants have always occupied the majority of the positive silver market share, occupying an absolute dominant position status. Heraeus launched the first orthodox silver paste in 2008. So far, it has introduced ten generations of important products. It has improved the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells by about 0.15% per year on average, continuing to promote the technological advancement of the industry.
The domestic positive silver paste started late. Before 2011, domestic domestic positive silver has not made a breakthrough. Until 2016, after several years of technology accumulation, domestic domestic sterling silver companies seized market opportunities and rose rapidly, with a certain volume of supply capacity. In 2017, domestic orthodox silver companies captured second- and third-tier battery plants, and their market share gradually increased, with localization speed surpassing expectations.
In 2018, imported positive silver still accounted for more than 60% of the global positive silver paste market share. Although the domestic market share of domestic positive silver continues to rise, positive silver paste is a capital and technology-intensive industry. If domestic slurry companies want to continue to improve their competitiveness, the challenges they face are also increasing.
In addition, with the continuous change of battery production technology, different battery factories have different quality requirements for raw materials, process routes, and production equipment, which will cause each battery factory to have unique slurry requirements. Therefore, for slurry enterprises, no matter in terms of product performance, customer technology and cost coordination, or even the establishment of customer relationships, it is the key to winning in the fierce market competition in the future.