[Ferro-alloys.com] Capacity and production of Chinese ferrosilicon were both far ahead worldwide, with most being domestic consumption and exports to Japan, South Korea and Americas. The EU levied import duty of ferrosilicon imported from China, thus very small quantities to the EU.

China levied export duty of 25% on Chinese ferrosilicon, which brought about smuggling activity, with major destinations of these products being Japan, South Korea and China’s Taiwan province. Rough statistics showed exports of roundabout lower-priced Chinese ferrosilicon (to the three areas) were 0.15 million tons in H1 of 2014, 140% of the regular exports.

Japanese and South Korean ferrosilicon consumers had invested in some ferrosilicon projects outside of China, such as Malaysia. One of the Malaysian ferrosilicon projects were expected to come on stream in the near future, whose ferrosilicon (about 95 thousand tons) was directly supplied to Japan steel mills. China could squeeze in the US market, but the USITC dropped antidumping duty against imported ferrosilicon from Russia and Venezuela. This would reduce the market share of Chinese ferrosilicon in the US.

• [Editor:Phillip.Feng]