Asian silicon buyers flood Europe to secure supply

Asia-Pacific silicon consumers are flooding into the European market seeking spot cargoes, after their Chinese suppliers halted supply because of output cuts at the country's major production hubs.

European producers and traders received a large range of offers from Asian buyers, competing with their usual European customers for spot silicon metal volumes.

"I'm receiving calls from buyers in Taiwan, Japan, India and South Korea. I could easily sell all our production quantity to Asia right now," said one European producer. "But I have to serve my European customers on contracts, our focus is mainly Europe and Japan."

Most producers were focused on delivering on their contractual obligations, but some had small volumes available on the spot market. One western European producer sold several small lots of 5-5-3 grade metal to a South Korean buyer at $8,000/t (€6,863/t) cif Busan.

Traders offered higher prices linked to the Chinese export price but offers above this price were firmly rejected. One trader offered 3-3-0-3 grade metal to a Taiwanese buyer at €9,000/t in warehouse but was rejected. Chinese export prices for 5-5-3 grade silicon metal were assessed at $8,900-8,950/t fob (€7,616-7,658/t).

European buyers also scramble

Several large primary aluminium producers have also entered the spot market alongside secondary aluminium and chemical siloxane producers, pushing European prices higher.

Prices for 5-5-3 grade silicon metal were up at €5,400-5,600/t ddp on 28 September, an increase of €900/t from the previous assessment at €4,500-4,700/t ddp on 23 September. Prices for 4-4-1 grade metal were assessed at €5,600-5,800/t ddp on 28 September, also up by €900/t from €4,700-4,900/t on 23 September. The market for 3-3-0-3 grade was assessed up at €5,800-6,000/t ddp.

One producer sold 75t of 3-3-0-3 grade metal to an existing customer in Europe at €5,975/t ddp. Market participants expect prices to continue rising in the coming days as competition for spot volumes heats up.

Secondary aluminium and large primary and alloy producers were more comfortable absorbing price rises than chemical producers because silicon metal is a smaller proportion of their raw material costs.

Aluminium-silicon alloys contain 5-25pc silicon, with the most commonly used containing 8-12pc. Chemical producers require around 0.5t of silicon metal to produce 1t of siloxane, while polysilicon producers require 1t of metal to produce around 1t of polysilicon.

Consumers were also eager to secure material for the first and second quarter of 2022 at the earliest to avoid higher prices in the traditional October-November contract negotiation period. European producers said that consumers, usually buying from China, are negotiating with them for first-half 2022 supply, anticipating a protracted disruption in China from energy curbs and ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February.

"I think the problem is more of a structural issue, people are looking for longer-term contracts because of expected difficulty over the next year and fears over China's energy plans. Some are cautious for the full year, but less willing to commit as prices could come down further on," one European producer said.

By Thomas Kavanagh