Silicon Metal Prices Fell in China

Due to the scarcity of transactions, currently, the mainstream price of China's silicon metal 5-5-3 has dropped to 10,600-10,800 yuan/ton, down 100 yuan/ton from last week. Industry insiders expect silicon metal prices in China to fall slightly in the coming week, given weak demand.

On Friday, a producer in shaanxi province said, "at present, we are offering 10,300 yuan per ton for the delivery of the 5-5-3 metal silicon, the same as last week, but we can accept a counter-offer of up to 100 yuan per ton. The lowest price we could accept last week was 10,300 yuan/ton. At the beginning of last week, we sold 32 tons for 10,300 yuan/ton." While production costs are firm, prices are volatile, he adds. Local electricity prices are 0.39 yuan/KWH, and it takes about 13,000 KWH to produce a ton of metallic silicon. I haven't received an order since the beginning of last week. He complains that demand for silicon metal has been weak this year, so he expects prices to fall by 50 yuan a tonne in the coming week.

The producer, which has an annual production capacity of 17,300 tons, has no inventory. With one of its two 12,500KVA furnaces still operating, production is expected to be around 750 tonnes in December, unchanged from the previous month.

I received the offer of silicon metal 5-5-3 for delivery of 10,800 yuan/ton, down 100 yuan/ton from last week. The lowest price we received for this product last week is 10,900 yuan/ton. At the beginning of last week, we bought 64 tons for 10,900 yuan per ton, "a trader in henan said on Friday. He added that they had little stock because sales always went well, but they were much worse than they had expected. One of their customers placed an order for 150 tons of metallic silicon two weeks ago, but the customer has already made a purchase from the manufacturer. Because there was no demand, the customer asked to postpone the order. In order to maintain the relationship with the client, he had to accept. Both the export market and the domestic market are in bad shape. Orders are down a lot. Given weak demand, he expects Chinese silicon metal prices to fall 100 yuan a ton in the coming week.

The trader, which regularly trades 2,000 tons of silicon metal a month and has 150 tons in stock, expects to sell about 1,500 tons in December, unchanged from the previous month.