Silicone

This week, the price of DMC generally stabilized. Multiple producers restarted their plants and downstream players continuously decreased enthusiasm for purchasing products, resulting in a slight drop of actual transaction price although DMC quotations remained stable. The prices of silicon metal and methyl chloride rebounded, and that of methanol adjusted slightly. The production cost of DMC was going up. In the week, amid the stable price of raw materials and the unchanged production cost, the prices of OH polymer, gum and silicone fluid stayed in stability, but HCR price were down to a small extent. As some silicone monomer producers restarted their devices, the supply of DMC increased accordingly. Besides, the demand in the downstream sectors didn’t improve. It’s expected that the silicone price would slightly fall at the end of August.

Fumed silica

This week, the domestic fumed silica market stabilized. The enterprises in China mostly offered steady prices, individual ones increased price slightly. In terms of raw materials, the price of silicon tetrachloride (STC) was stable, while that of monomethyltrichlorosilane (MTCS) continuously rose, driven by narrow supply in silicone monomers plants. In the week, the fumed silica enterprises lowered the operating rate, resulting in less supply and the inventory consumed. With the boom in price of cross-linking agents impacting the downstream firms, the market demand for fumed silica improved. Amid the increasing price of MTCS as well as the rising production cost, the fumed silica price is projected to adjust in the short period.

Silicon metal

This week, the domestic price of silicon metal continuously rose. The big companies raised the price of silicon metal as prices for petroleum coke etc. on the production cost side increased and the demand of silicon metal in the downstream sectors improved compared to the previous period. Polysilicon producers raised production. Silicone aluminum alloy ingots producers unchanged their operating rates, with the stable demand for silicon metal. Additionally, the supply of the low-grade spot silicon metal was short. The above factors led to a rebound in the spot silicon metal price. Currently, with expansion of production capacity of large factories, the supply of silicon metal is expected to continue increasing. The price of silicon metal will adjust as expected in the short term.

Polysilicon 

This week, the polysilicon market price continued rising, which are attributed to as follows: First, despite the partial new capacities were released, the new supply was less than expected, the estimated production this August is the same as that in July or slightly increased. Second, some major producers raised silicon wafer prices by 3.37%-6.71%, which can withstand a rise in polysilicon price. Third, the inventory of polysilicon was low and early orders have not been fulfilled. Last, a rebound in polysilicon prices was well accepted by downstream enterprises.