Silicon metal prices held steady in China

Due to the reduction of spot inventory and weak demand, the current mainstream transaction price of silicon metal 5-5-3 in the Chinese market is 10,700-10,900 yuan/ton, unchanged from last week. Industry insiders expect Chinese silicon metal prices to remain stable in the coming week, given falling inventories and weak demand.

A producer in yunnan said, "our quotation for silicon metal 5-5-3 is 10,700 yuan/ton for kunming delivery, which is the same as last week. We do not accept a lower price. The lowest price we could accept last week was 10,700 yuan/ton, and our last order was yesterday, selling 32 tons at 10,700 yuan/ton." He added that, as they only have 200 tonnes in stock, they would prefer to keep them by February 2020. Most of their customers complain that their demand is much lower than in the same period last year because of weak demand in the end market. He added that he received five inquiries a week in December, but only one this week. In addition, some customers reported a slowdown in metal and silicon sales due to weak demand. He expects Chinese silicon metal prices to remain stable in the coming week, given weak demand and reduced spot demand. The producer has an annual capacity of 8,600 tons of metallic silicon and has a current stock of 200 tons. They stopped production of silicon metal at the end of October because of sharply rising production costs.

"Our current offer for silicon metal 5-5-3 is 10,700 yuan/ton for kunming delivery, unchanged from last week, and we do not consider accepting the counter-offer now. The lowest price we could accept last week was 10,700 yuan/ton, and our last order was 20 days ago, selling 300 tons at 10,600 yuan/ton ex-factory price, "another yunnan producer said. He added that because they need to pay for the installation of environmental protection facilities, they sign orders. 'demand is weak this year, so they signed some very cheap orders in August to avoid inventory,' he says. Most of his orders have come from long-term customers, and export traders have been slow this year. He has only received one inquiry this week and no orders have been closed. He also said he preferred to keep inventory. He expects Chinese silicon metal prices to remain stable in the coming week, given weak demand and falling spot stocks.

The producer, which has a capacity of 17,300 tons a year and 100 tons of inventory, stopped production at the end of October because of sharply rising production costs.