Silicon metal is absolutely necessary to the production of aluminum and chemical products since it provides them with essential properties. A wide range of modern technologies depend on this material.
Silicon metal cannot be substituted and there is no recycling of (pure) Silicon.
The economic importance of Silicon has been demonstrated – in the aluminum and chemical sectors, but also as essential material in the electronics and solar industries, and a promising input in the battery application to increase energy storage capacity and hence battery duration. The absence of substitutes for the wide range of end-uses only increases the critical character of this material.
In particular, China is expected to continue to increase its market share among global producers in the next 5 years, following the same trend observed in the past years. This trend may be explained by recurrent dumping practices favored by production overcapacity.
Growth in the silicon metal market is expected to continue in the coming years, led by increased demand from regular aluminum and chemical applications, fast growing solar industry, and promising battery market demand.
There is no level playing field between the EU and its main competing regions in terms of policy in the energy, climate and environment fields. European Silicon metal producers are faced with fierce and often unfair competition from third countries. The still existing Europe-based commodity production must be preserved if the EU wants to avoid exposing its main economic value chains and sectors to a total dependence external raw materials supply.