Analysis of the cost structure of photovoltaic glass
Since the third quarter of this year, photovoltaic glass has become the segment with the most urgent supply and the largest price increase in the entire industry chain. The price has doubled in just four months. The current industry mainstream 3.2mm photovoltaic glass price is between 43-47 RMB per square meter, which has reached a historical high. Today, we will take everyone to understand this "hard-to-find and hot" photovoltaic glass from the aspect of the cost structure of photovoltaic glass!
The cost of photovoltaic glass can be divided into four parts: direct materials, fuel power, direct labor and manufacturing costs, of which raw materials and fuel power costs are the main sources, accounting for up to 80%.
1) Direct materials
The raw materials used in the production of photovoltaic glass sheets include quartz sand, soda ash, feldspar, dolomite, limestone, and thenardite. Among them, quartz sand and soda ash are not only the main components in material input but also the two types of raw materials that have the greatest impact on material costs. The price of soda ash is relatively high and fluctuates sharply, which has a relatively large impact on the cost of glass. Because of the high concentration of the soda ash industry, large soda ash suppliers have a stronger voice, and buyers do not have high bargaining power. Photovoltaic glass has relatively high-quality requirements for quartz sand. In nature, it is rare to find raw materials of quartz sand that can meet the requirements for glass production without treatment. Therefore, the future supply of high-quality and stable quartz sand is the guarantee for the development of photovoltaic glass enterprises.
Other raw materials include limestone, dolomite, and thenardite. The cost of these materials is relatively small compared to soda ash and quartz sand, and the fluctuations are not large.
2) Fuel power cost
Fuel power costs mainly include fuel and electricity. Glass fuel is mainly natural gas and heavy oil, which is used in the kiln equipment during the original production process; electricity runs through the entire production process, and the amount in the deep processing link is particularly large, about 4 times that of the previous link. In order to better control costs, at present, many medium and large-scale production lines are equipped with dual-fuel systems of petroleum fuel and natural gas to optimize the configuration of fuel consumption to prevent cost fluctuations caused by the rapid rise of certain fuel prices.
3) Labor cost
Labor cost refers to the labor and labor cost consumed in the process of photovoltaic glass production and construction. The level of labor cost reflects the level of production or construction technology and equipment and labor productivity to a certain extent. Therefore, in order to effectively reduce labor costs, the automation rate of the kiln should be continuously improved and its service life increased.
4) Manufacturing expenses
That is the cost of the photovoltaic glass manufacturing process. After five steps of mixing, melting, calendering, annealing and cutting the raw materials, the untreated semi-finished photovoltaic original sheet is obtained, which is then further processed. Among them, the temperature of the kiln and the yield of glass are difficult to control.
