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Despite global overcapacity, several factors may contribute to a slight increase in solar panel prices in Brazil, with shipping costs and tax exemption fees on imported PV modules playing a key role.
Brazil imported around 10.1 GW of PV modules between January and May, according to PV InfoLink. This capacity, worth $1.2 billion, exceeds the $1.13 billion import quota set by Brazilian authorities for the exemption of 9.6% import duties on solar modules from January to June 2024.
The next round of duty-free import quotas is set at $1.014 billion from July 2024 to June 2025 and may be exhausted quickly. The government will impose taxes if the import limit is exceeded, and higher shipping costs could also push up solar module prices.
“The container costs between 2,500 and 2,300 USD, and recently it went up to 9,300 USD,” Camilla Nascimento, commercial director of WIN Distribuidora, told pv magazine .
Nascimento added that there is little room for negotiation regarding transport, which is carried out in a specific model of 40-foot container. “We are ‘hostages’ to using this type of modality. And the ships are very overloaded due to the whole international scenario, the issue of wars has changed international trade and the increase in consumption of Chinese products in Brazil and around the world has increased demand.”
Given the dollars 15% rise against the Brazilian real this year and rising freight costs, PV system costs are expected to rise in the second half of the year, the executive said.
Brazilian consultancy firm Greener estimates that 60% to 70% of imported volume this year was destined for the distributed generation photovoltaic market. The dollar and shipping costs affect the prices of photovoltaic systems, but the entry of low-cost modules due to Chinas high production capacity will mitigate these effects in the coming months, it said. |
