Silicon metal market

Metal silicon is also known as crystalline silicon or industrial silicon. Metal silicon is widely used in the production of semiconductors, aluminum alloys and solar cells. Its main purpose is to be used as an additive for non-iron based alloys. Silicon metal is a product smelted by quartz and coke in an electric furnace. The content of main component silicon element is about 98% (in recent years, the content of Si 99.99% is also included in the silicon metal), and the other impurities are iron, aluminum, calcium and so on. Used in aluminum alloy, semiconductor and iron and steel smelting and precision ceramics.

According to the data released by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Silicon Branch, since 2018, China's silicon production capacity has continued to release, and silicon production has increased. In 2019, domestic silicon production was 2.21 million tons, a sharp drop of 420,000 tons compared to 2018, mainly due to the continued low price and large-scale shutdown of high-cost production capacity. In terms of the regional distribution of production, due to the influence of power costs, the main producing areas of silicon in China are Xinjiang, Yunnan and Sichuan, which account for 75% of the national production. In 2019, Xinjiang's silicon production accounted for about 40 percent of the country's total, while Yunnan and Sichuan accounted for 20 percent and 13 percent, respectively. In terms of demand, China's silicon metal market demand is increasing year by year, but the growth rate is gradually slowing down. In 2018, China's silicon metal market demand is 1.54 million tons, and in 2019, the domestic silicon metal demand is 1.6 million tons, with a year-on-year growth of 3.9%, and the growth rate is 3.1 percentage points lower than that of 2018. From the perspective of the demand structure of silicon metal, organic silicon is the application field of silicon metal, the silicon industry consumes the most silicon metal and the demand growth is the fastest. In 2019, the silicon metal consumption in the silicon industry reached 740,000 tons, accounting for 46.25%, and the consumption increased by 7.2% compared with 2018.