The main cause of the “silicon crisis” is the large-scale shutdown of silicon production in China, which is by far the largest supplier in the world. It accounts for about two thirds of global production. Chinese factories have again reduced their activity due to rising oil, electricity and gas prices – another problem, which is currently bothering businesses around the planet.
In Yunnan Province, where one-fifth of China’s silicon is produced, production fell 90 percent in September from a month earlier. The plants in Sichuan Province are also facing restrictions.
“Some stocks of silicon are still available, but of course they are sold at very high prices,” he told the agency Bloomberg Keith Wildie from the British company Romco Metals, which processes industrial metals. In earlier years, a ton of silicon was commonly sold from eight to seventeen thousand yuan. Now the same amount of silicon is traded for 67,300 yuan, about 228,000 crowns.
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Silicon is used, for example, in the manufacture of glass, concrete, computer chips, solar panels, medical implants, cosmetic products or automotive components. Probably the most rising price of this metal is disturbing the carmakers, which have long been struggling with a shortage of semiconductors and other materials. Solar panel manufacturers are also not happy, because the demand for their products is steadily growing due to the global transition to renewable energy sources.
Chinese analyst Yang Xiaoting of the research organization Shanghai Metals Market expects silicon prices to remain at current levels for at least the summer of 2022, even if production starts by the end of this year.
“It simply came to our notice then. We hope that supply chain constraints will be resolved in a satisfactory time, ”said Buddy Stemple, head of the American Aluminum Production and Processing Association, in a panic.
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The global silicon market should according to the study Allied Market Research from February this year will reach the volume of 8.9 billion dollars by 2027, almost two hundred billion crowns. In the last year before the pandemic – 2019 – it was $ 6.3 billion.
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The world’s largest producers of silicon
Source: statista.com, data for 2020 |
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