On August 19, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Central Ministry of Social Work, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Energy Administration jointly held a symposium on the photovoltaic industry. The meeting clearly pointed out that all parties in the photovoltaic industry must deeply understand the importance of standardizing the competitive order to achieve high-quality development, and jointly promote the industry from scale expansion to quality improvement, from price war to technology and service competition.
Since the second half of 2023, the photovoltaic industry has encountered severe challenges such as continuous price declines and general declines in corporate efficiency. The price of modules once fell below 0.6 yuan/W, and the disorderly price war and homogeneous competition intensified, seriously distorting the market mechanism and hindering industrial upgrading. In this context, the convening of this symposium is regarded by the industry as an important signal for the national level to "anti-involution", marking a new stage in the governance of the photovoltaic industry from corporate self-discipline to policy guidance and market mechanism two-wheel drive.
At the opening of trading on August 20, the three major A-share indexes collectively opened lower, and the photovoltaic sector strengthened against the market. The photovoltaic equipment sector opened higher, with the index at 1211.277 points, up 2%; Huamin shares rose by the limit, and Shuangliang Energy Conservation, Yijing Optoelectronics, Ainengju, Amadeon, Hongyuan Green Energy, Liancheng CNC, and Kaisheng New Energy followed suit.
Systematically rectify low-price disorderly competition
Since 2023, the photovoltaic industry has continued to expand its production capacity, but it has fallen into "involution" competition against the backdrop of high global trade barriers and slowing domestic demand growth. The price of photovoltaic modules continued to fall, falling to about 0.6 yuan per watt, and the profit margins of enterprises were squeezed, and the whole industry chain from polysilicon and silicon wafers to cells and modules suffered general losses. Wang Bohua, honorary chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, pointed out that the involution of the industry, the increase of globalization barriers and the phased mismatch between supply and demand are the main reasons for the overall pressure on the industry.
According to data from China's photovoltaic industry, in the first quarter of this year, the prices of the photovoltaic industry chain were at the bottom; In March, affected by the rush to install, the prices of all links in the industrial chain began to rebound and reached a high level in early April; In April, as the rush to install came to an end, the prices of all links began to decline rapidly; By the beginning of July, the prices of all links had fallen for more than 10 consecutive weeks, all of which were lower than the level at the beginning of the year, and the prices of all links in the industrial chain were below the lowest level in history.
In the face of the dilemma of "involution" in the photovoltaic industry, the national level has repeatedly made moves to play a policy combination punch. In November 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revised the "Specification Conditions for the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Industry" and the "Interim Measures for the Management of Photovoltaic Manufacturing Industry Specification Announcements", which mentioned that local governments should be guided to rationally lay out photovoltaic manufacturing projects based on resource endowments and industrial foundations, and encourage intensive and clustered development. Guide photovoltaic enterprises to reduce photovoltaic manufacturing projects that simply expand production capacity, strengthen technological innovation, improve product quality, and reduce production costs.
In April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Key Points of Industrial and Information Technology Standards in 2025", emphasizing the acceleration of the formulation and revision of key product standards such as photovoltaics and lithium batteries, and leading industrial upgrading with high standards. At the beginning of July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Special Energy Conservation Supervision Task List for the Polysilicon Industry", which implemented energy-saving supervision for 40 polysilicon enterprises to further standardize production behavior.