It is reported that Chinese silicon metal suppliers hiked their offer price this week, but Indian importers still hold the wait-and-see attitude and hesitate to make the purchases. Chinese suppliers said the resources are tight in the market at the moment.
According to an Indian importer, currently the prices of Chinese silicon 553 and silicon 441 are posted at USD 1700 per tonne to USD 1740 per tonne CIF Bombay, up by USD 50 per tonne from that before the Chinese New Year. The importer said "We don't have any inventory now and are not going to import products in the near future, as there is no order received yet. His company imported a small amount of silicon metal from China before the Spring Festival.
Another Indian trader also confirmed that they have been noticed the price increase by the Chinese suppliers. He attributed the price hike to the comparative supply tight in the Chinese market. In fact, most of the local silicon metal importers don't have sound orders at the present, so the silicon metal imports won't be active in the short term.
Source : MySteel.net