Silicone

This week, the price of DMC fell to the slight extent on the condition of relatively sufficient supply and the continuously sluggish demand in the terminal downstream markets, players bought DMC in accordance with its needs. The price of silicon metal went on falling. The price of methyl chloride came back to rise, and that of methanol dropped. The production cost decreased with the falling price of raw materials in the week. The prices of OH polymer, gum and silicone fluid mostly fell, while that of HCR (high consistency rubber) was relatively stable. The silicone monomer manufacturers reduced their operating rate to a larger extent due to overhaul. 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 slightly falling, and the individual enterprises offered the declining prices. In terms of the raw materials, the price of silicon tetrachloride (STC) fell due to its supply surpassing the demand, while that of monomethyltrichlorosilane (MTCS) fluctuated within a narrowed range, but it was significantly lower than the price of silicon tetrachloride. The demand for fumed silica in the downstream markets was still sluggish in the week. The downstream firms purchased fumed silica in accordance to their demand. Overall, the supply of fumed silica exceeded its demand. Under the downturn in the downstream sectors, the terminal market demand might be hard to increase. The fumed silica market is expected to be relatively weak in the short term.

Silicon metal 

This week, the domestic price of silicon metal kept falling due to the oversupply and sluggish demand, with a small amount of transaction. For the supply, the silicon metal producers in southwest China had less willingness to raise the operating rate amid the falling silicon metal price and losses. Nevertheless, the supply of silicon metal is currenly sufficient and stable as the domestic factories in normal operation at the earlier stage had a high operating rate. On the demand, in the situation of sluggish terminal consumption coupled with the high inventory and the expected production resumption of factories in southwest China during the rainy season, the three dowstream sectors - silicone monomer, polysilicon and aluminium alloy bought silicon metal on rigid demand. Oversupply led to a decline in the price of metal silicon.

Polysilicon 

The polysilicon market price continued falling in this week, down 10% weekly, but the transaction volume increased to some extent. On the supply side, the polysilicon factories went on releasing the new production capacity, making the supply grow up. On the demand, a number of silicon chips firms intend to cut down the operating rate by 20%, weakening demand expectations for polysilicon in the short run and causing a shift of inventory to upstream polysilicon sector. Besides, the method of order signed on weekly basis, likewise, intensified the competition between upstream and downstream markets, rendering the polysilicon price into the sharp fall. The coming price trend is expected to fluctuate on the basis of the factors such as the startup schedule of new capacity of polysilicon, the actual reduction amount in the silicon chips production, the demand in the terminal markets and so forth.