CHINA SOLAR: TRACKING PROFITABILITY INFLECTION: Jul-26: Glass price increased while the remaining segments continued softness

Research evidence excerpt

CHINA SOLAR: TRACKING PROFITABILITY INFLECTION: Jul-26: Glass price increased while the remaining segments continued softness

Equity Research

27 July 2026 | 2:39PM CST

CHINA SOLAR: TRACKING PROFITABILITY INFLECTION

Jul-26: Glass price increased while the remaining segments continued

softness

Our China Solar Profitability Tracker follows monthly supply/demand and Mengwen Wang

+86(21)2401-8932 |

inventory dynamics by sub-sector, and spot prices/input costs implied cash GP mengwen.wang@goldmansachs.cn

Goldman Sachs (China) Securities

& EBITDA margin trends for companies under our coverage. Company Limited

Jacqueline Du

Key highlights in Jul MTD: +852-2978-1783 |

jacqueline.du@gs.com

Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.

n Glass price increased while the remaining segments continued softness:

Throughout the month, pricing declined by an avg. 7% across the solar value

chain. By segment, pricing trend is diverging with Glass price up by 6% MTD (due

to improving inventory days to 50 by end-Jul from 57 days in Jun) while Wafer

(-7% MTD on lower Poly price) and Cell (-11% MTD on lower Wafer price and

continued silver price decline at -15% MTD) leading the price weakness. In terms

of profitability, pricing change has led to 11pp/1pp margin improvement in

Glass/Module and 3pp/5pp/5pp/8pp deterioration in Poly/Wafer/Cell/Film.

n Tighter energy standard announced for Poly but likely muted impact to

effective supply: On Jul 20, multiple authorities jointly announced mandatory

energy standard for Poly production that came in tighter than the draft version

with energy intensity cap for existing operating capacity (Tier 3 standard)

lowered to 6.3kgce/kg (or 51KWh/kg) for Rod Poly vs. 6.4kgce/kg (or 52KWh/kg)

in draft version, effective from Jan 2027. We see muted impact to effective Poly