Silicone

This week, the price of DMC continued to decline due to the sufficient supply and the sluggish demand. Some silicone monomer firms strove to reduce the inventory. The price of silicon metal went on falling. The price of methyl chloride stabilized, and that of methanol was down. The production cost decreased with the falling price of raw materials in the week. The prices of gum, silicone fluid and HCR (high consistency rubber) mostly fell, while that of OH polymer was relatively stable. The silicone monomer manufacturers reduced their operating rate to an extent. With the sluggish demand for DMC, the silicone price is expected to stay relatively low in the short term.

Fumed silica

This week, the domestic market price of fumed silica was relatively stable, and the individual enterprises continued offering the declining prices. In terms of upstream raw materials, the price of silicon tetrachloride (STC) rose a bit, and monomethyltrichlorosilane (MTCS) generally stabilized, the production cost almost unchanged. The demand for fumed silica in the downstream markets was still sluggish in this week. The downstream firms purchased fumed silica in accordance to their demand. Under the current macro-economic environment, the terminal market demand may keep flat. The fumed silica market is expected to be relatively weak in the short term.

Silicon metal

The price of silicon metal dropped greatly this week. Mostly domestic silicon metal producers suffered losses. The producers in southwest China under the overhaul were unwilling to resume production. Silicon metal producers were unwilling to sell products at a lower price. The three downstream industries showed the sluggish demand for silicon metal. The silicone monomer producers continued decreasing the operating rate. Aluminium alloy enterprises purchased silicon metal on rigid demand. The polysilicon manufacturers intended to purchase silicon metal at a lower price. In addition, the electricity price in southwest China is expected to go down. The downstream enterprises and relevant traders had a strong wait-and-see sentiment, with a less transaction, making the silicon metal price futher decline.

Polysilicon

The polysilicon market price continued to fall in the week, which is contributed to three reasons as follows: First, the falling price of silicon chips and the reduced production as well as the inventory made silicon wafer companies decrease the demand of polysilicon. Second, the inventory and lower operating rate in the silicon wafer sector led to a shift of inventory to upstream polysilicon sector. In addition, the release of new production capacity by polysilicon firms caused the increasing pressure in selling polysilicon. Third, individual downstream enterprises altered procurement frequency of polysilicon from the weekly basis to the daily one in order to prevent from losses in the price drop, which, accordingly, accelerated the fall of polysilicon price to a greater extent.