China’s silicon exports jump in Mar

SHANGHAI, May 7 (SMM) – China exported a total of 73,000 mt of silicon metal in March, up 52.1% on the month and up 11.7% on the year.

This brought overall silicon exports in the first quarter to 197,200 mt, up 8.6% year on year, according to data from Chinese Customs.

As the influence from the Chinese New Year cooled down, silicon exports saw an apparent rebound in March. The year-on-year increase in March included a 14% jump in exports to Japan and a 33% surge in exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Exports to South Korea, however, plunged 21% year on year.

China’s biggest silicon export port, Huangpu Customs in Guangdong province, began stricter inspections over silicon metal exports from the end of April as some ferrosilicon exporters declared their cargoes as silicon metal to avoid paying duties. Some local customs brokers have now asked traders to provide relevant documents when declaring, including value-added tax (VAT) invoices and historical prices.

SMM learned that only Huangpu Customs has seen such requirement so far, operations at other main silicon export ports including Tianjin port and Xiamen port remained unchanged.

While some exporters still managed to make the declaration without providing VAT invoices at Huangpu port, they said they would raise offers this week in response to the move that added risks for them.

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