SMM6 12 / 12 / PRNewswire-FirstCall-Asianet /-

In May, the start-up rate of the metal silicon industry surveyed by Shanghai Nonferrous Network (SMM) was 32.6%, which maintained a slight downward trend of 0.6 percentage points from the previous month and 6.4 percentage points from the same period last year.

Last year, May was the time for silicon plants in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces to resume production one after another. Due to the severe drought in southwest China this year, the operating rate of silicon enterprises in Yunnan decreased by nearly 3 percentage points to 27.8 percent compared with the same period last year. The operating rate in Sichuan fell 7.7 percentage points to 27.1 percent from the same period last year (Sichuan resumed production earlier than Yunnan due to the flat water period). By the end of May, there was no abundant precipitation in most producing areas of the two provinces, the power generation of small hydropower was seriously insufficient, and some silicon plants with finished maintenance and adequate raw materials could not resume production as scheduled because the power supply could not be satisfied. In addition, the new installation of desulfurization in Yunnan Silicon Plant, Sichuan Silicon Plant new installation of on-line monitoring and other environmental reasons also have a certain impact on the start-up.

At the same time as southern supply fell sharply from the same period last year, the ore shortage in Xinjiang in May led to varying degrees of production cuts by two large enterprises, causing the operating rate in Xinjiang to fall to 36.9 percent, a decrease of 8.7 percentage points from the previous month. The production of H enterprise's own mine was suspended at the end of April because of environmental protection and safety inspection, which caused the spot of ore in Xinjiang to become tight, and another enterprise was affected by this to reduce production slightly. Due to a large number of mining problems, the possibility of short-term recovery of suspended mines is relatively low, but for other silicon plants, because silica is originally one of the raw materials for a large number of stocks, and dealers also have a certain inventory, and most of the silicon plants in Xinjiang have increased the feeding proportion of abundant pebbles after the mountain mine has problems, and the production of silicon plants in Xinjiang is not in danger within a few months.

According to meteorological forecasts, extensive rainfall in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces may have to wait until the middle and late June, the normal resumption of production in silicon plants in the two provinces may be postponed to the end of June, and stable output will be after July. As a result, the national opening rate fell by more than 10 percentage points in June compared with the same period last year.

In May 2019, the country produced 147000 tons of silicon metal, down 28.2 percent from a year earlier, the biggest year-on-year contraction in supply in 2019. From January to May, the cumulative output of silicon metal in China was 751000 tons, down 24.2 percent from the same period last year, which was larger than the cumulative output from January to May. It is expected that there will be a shortfall of more than 100000 tons of silicon metal supply for the whole of 2019, and the social inventory at the end of the year will be lower than that of the same period in 2018.

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