Platts assessed the spot price of 98.5% 553-grade silicon metal at $2,000-2,050/mt FOB China Thursday, unchanged week on week, as buying interest stayed scant as offer prices from Chinese sellers rose.
This week a Chinese producer with plants in Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces sold around 120 mt of 98.5% 553-grade silicon metal for loading over January-February from Huangpu at $2,040-2,050/mt FOB to buyers in Japan.
No other deals could be confirmed. Offer prices were heard at $2,030-2,100/mt FOB this week, with some sellers raising offer prices by $10-50/mt over the past week or fortnight.
The increase in offers follows Chinese domestic prices which had increased due to higher power rates and production stoppages in Sichuan and Yunnan. Some producers are also limiting their sales now on limited stocks in their warehouses and in anticipation of higher prices.
But sellers conceded that deals were hard to close as most buyers were only keen on buying at around $2,000/mt FOB.
"Prices have increases but demand has not really improved. Customers are doing hand-to-mouth business now, buying only what they need," said a trader in Hong Kong. He added that a European customer had returned a bid of $2,000/mt FOB to his offer of $2,030/mt FOB.
An official from a Fujian-based producer also said his customers were looking at prices of $2,010-2,020/mt FOB, way below his offer of $2,100/mt FOB. "But we have to offer at this price because domestic prices have increased," he said.
Sources said that while some factories in Sichuan and Yunnan were in no hurry to sell because they have limited inventory after stopping production, stocks nationally of least 100,000 mt were still high.
"Supply is definitely higher than demand right now...And buyers know this," said a Shanghai-based analyst.
Transacted prices of Chinese domestic 553-grade silicon at Huangpu port rose to Yuan 12,100-12,200/mt ($1,980-1,996/mt) on Thursday, from Yuan 12,000-12,200/mt a week ago.
Meanwhile the spot price of 553 grade 98.5% silicon metal imported into Japan was assessed at $2,040-2,060/mt CIF Japan Thursday, narrowing from $2,020-2,070/mt CIF Japan last week on deals and offers reported in the range.
Trade has thinned this week as major secondary aluminum smelters completed their January-March purchases last week. One Japanese trader reported buying an undisclosed amount at $2,040-2,050/mt CIF Japan. A second Japanese trader offered $2,050/mt CIF Japan to one end-user, but the deal did not take place because the buyer bid at less than $2,000/mt CIF Japan.
The weaker yen at Yen 103 to the dollar, compared with Yen 101 earlier in the month, also discouraged buyers who purchase in yen.
Japanese traders also reported increases in inquiries for 441-grade 99% silicon metal, closing deals at around $2,200-2,220/mt CIF Japan. The discount of 553 to 441 grades is typically $100/mt. The discount has widened in the last few weeks due to shortage of high-purity silica feedstock, Japanese traders said.