What is Silicon Metal?
Silicon metal, also known as crystalline silicon or industrial silicon, is primarily used as an additive to non-ferrous alloys. Silicon metal is a product smelted by quartz and coke in an electric furnace, and the content of the main component silicon element is about 98% (in recent years, 99.99% of the Si content is also contained in silicon metal), and the remaining impurities are ferro, aluminum, calcium, etc.
According to the content of ferro, aluminum, and calcium in silicon metal, silicon metal can be divided into 553, 441, 411, 421, 3303, 3305, 2202, 2502, 1501, 1101 and other different grades.
For example silicon metal 553, Ferro: 0.5%, aluminum: 0.5%, and Calcium: 0.3%.
The silicon metal market maintained a weak operating trend, and the prices of various grades fell by 300-500 yuan. At present, the mainstream transaction price in the market has fallen below the production cost of many industrial silicon plants, and the terminal consumption does not increase but decreases, especially the silicon market is weak, the consumption is significantly reduced, and the recovery of silicon prices is not supported for the time being. Under the background of increasing production pressure, poor sales, and inverted costs of silicon plants in various places, the quotations of silicon factories began to stabilize, stimulating the release of downstream rigid orders.
This week, the price of metallurgical grade industrial silicon continued to fall, and the low-grade performance of oxygen was obvious, and the mainstream price of Tianjin Port oxygen 553#, 551#, and other products fell from 15600-16000 to 15400-15600 yuan/ton; 441# is around 16200-16300 yuan/ton; The port price of 3303# is about 16800 yuan/ton, and the factory of recycled silicon 331# and other products is 16100 yuan/ton; The monthly order volume of chemical grade 421# is small, the production reduction of silicon factories is intensified, and only a small amount of orders are placed for the purchase of raw materials, and some monthly orders are traded at 17300-17500 yuan/ton.
Silicon Metal Export Markets
The industrial silicon export market is not active, and export traders are cautious about purchasing during the delivery of a small number of orders. So far export FOB quotation (week-on-week): 553 # 2240-2280 down 20; 441 # 2380-2420 down 20; 421 # 2540-2580 down 20; 3303 #2480-2530 down 20; 2202 # 4000-4100 square meters (unit: USD/ton).
The Domestic Downstream Market
The silicon market has become increasingly stable, but the factory is still in a loss-making state, and the enthusiasm for operation is low, and the operating rate is about 55%; The production of polysilicon plants is normal, some have short-term maintenance plans, and the recent purchase of metal powder is still inactive; The aluminum alloy factory just needs to be purchased, and the price is still mainly reduced.
Forecast for the Next Half Month
This week, silicon metal public warehouses have basically stabilized, silicon metal prices continue to decline, northern and southern factories have said that they are already in the cost line or in a loss state, some factories are still insisting, and some factories have stopped production and waited, but the market is still not high enthusiasm for buying.
The supply and demand relationship of silicon metal is tight, and it is difficult to alleviate in the short term, so the price of silicon metal is difficult to reverse due to the high level of social inventory and warehouse inventory. Most industrial silicon plants have inverted costs, and the sentiment of selling has increased, stimulating the release of some just-needed orders. It is expected that next week’s silicon prices will be mainly weak and stable, and the price increase will lack consumption support.