Silicon Metal · Origin deep dive
Silicon metal 5-5-3, FOB China
China sets the seaborne silicon-metal price
Metal from Yunnan, Sichuan and Xinjiang smelters exports through Huangpu and Kunming-linked southern ports in containerized lots.
Benchmark 553 grade (0.5% Fe, 0.5% Al, 0.3% Ca), with 441 and 3303 refined grades at premiums for chemical use.
Bagged containerized lots on liner services, with Xinjiang coal-power units and Yunnan hydro units priced against each other.
Aluminum alloyers take 553 while silicone and polysilicon producers pull refined grades, plus export traders serving Asia.
Yunnan hydropower's wet season lowers costs mid-year while dry-season power rationing cuts runs, giving a genuine seasonal supply rhythm.
Chinese power-price policy and polysilicon-sector boom-bust swings dominate, with export-tax-rebate changes a recurring pricing shock.
Anti-dumping duties and high power costs
Ferroglobe's Spanish and French plants and Rotterdam import warehouses supply the region, with duty-paid material trucked to consumers.
441 and chemical grades for silicones plus alloy grades, with EU-origin material commanding compliance value under antidumping cover.
Delivered truck lots inside the EU antidumping wall, blending domestic smelter output with duty-paid Brazilian and Norwegian imports.
European silicone chemical plants, aluminum alloyers, and foundries required to hold duty-cleared or EU-origin units.
Annual and semi-annual contract rounds dominate, with power-price winters periodically forcing European smelter curtailments.
High EU power costs keep smelters marginal; further curtailments would deepen import dependence despite antidumping protection.
Anti-dumping-protected domestic supply
Ferroglobe and Mississippi Silicon plants in Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and Mississippi ship domestically by rail and truck.
Alloy and chemical grades to ASTM specs, with domestic origin satisfying Buy-America and duty-exposure-averse procurement.
Delivered domestic moves behind antidumping and countervailing duties covering Chinese, Russian, Kazakh and other origins.
US aluminum alloyers, silicone producers, and secondary smelters that price domestic units against duty-inclusive import parity.
Calendar-year contract negotiations each fall set most volume, with spot filling automotive-driven demand swings.
The duty wall props up a small plant base; a single furnace outage tightens the domestic market faster than imports can respond.
Hydro-powered low-carbon premium
Brazilian units load from Vitória and southern ports; Norwegian metal from Elkem's fjord-side plants ships direct to Europe.
Low-carbon-footprint 553 and refined grades from hydropower smelting, increasingly sold with certified CO2 declarations.
FOB bulk-container parcels on Atlantic routes, with Brazilian charcoal-based and Norwegian hydro units feeding EU and US duty-paid channels.
European silicone makers and aluminum alloyers with Scope 3 targets, paying documented premiums for low-carbon silicon.
Brazilian hydrology and Nordic power prices modulate smelter economics seasonally, while contract cadence remains annual.
The low-carbon premium depends on buyers honoring green procurement; a weak silicone cycle collapses the differential to commodity 553.