Silicone

This week, DMC price fell sharply. The overall demand of downstream terminal customers was weak. The price of DMC from its major producers fell by RMB 500 per ton in the week, causing the other silicone monomer producers to make their prices fall, too. Silicon metal price continued to decline and that of methyl chloride rose. Methanol price fell slightly. Currently, the mainstream price of DMC is RMB 16 000-17 200 per ton. As this week saw the raw material price fall with the reduction of production cost, the prices of OH polymer, gum and silicone fluid also decreased. The price of HCR dropped slightly. With the DMC market in more supply than demand, the silicone price is expected to be stable but a bit down in the short term.

Fumed silica

This week, the domestic fumed silica market was stable. The price of fumed silica in the domestic enterprises stabilized while that in individual foreign firms rose. In terms of upstream raw materials, the price of silicon tetrachloride (STC) was basically stable, and the price of monomethyltrichlorosilane (MTCS) fell slightly. The demand for fumed silica from downstream market players recovered in a slow manner, who bought fumed silica on rigid demand. The fumed silica market was in sufficient supply, and the producers focused on reducing the inventory. The fumed silica market will stay relatively weak in the short term. 

Silicon metal 

Domestic price of silicon metal continued to decline this week. On the supply side, as the silicon metal producers operated actively in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the new capacity was released in an orderly manner, there was relatively sufficient supply of industrial silicon in the spot market. On the demand side, the weak terminal demand resulted in sluggish demand for industrial silicon in the three downstream fields, i.e. aluminum alloy, silicone and polysilicon, the prices of which fell at the same time. The relevant manufacturers refilled goods less enthusiastically by their strong intention of purchasing the industrial silicon at the lower price. Meanwhile, in order to return funds, some of the domestic producers and traders beat down the selling price.

Polysilicon 

Polysilicon price continued to decline slightly this week, which was attributed to the reasons as follows: On the one hand, silicon chips producers had higher wire breakage rate due to the bad quality of crucible, which led to a small number of qualified products. In order to meet the demand for orders, silicon chips producers raised operating rate. Moreover, the crucibles were frequently replaced because of the bad quality in themselves, decreasing the output of silicon chips per unit time. On the other, as the upstream and downstream firms had normal operating rate, there came increasing demand for polysilicon, rendering more active atmosphere of market transaction.