January polysilicon imports more than 5,000 tons increased by 75% over the same period

After the Spring Festival, the spot price of polysilicon rose and the tight supply of domestic production capacity finally had data support. The data released by the General Administration of Customs over the weekend showed that in January this year, China’s imports of polysilicon single month exceeded 5,000 tons for the third consecutive month, a substantial increase of 75% year-on-year. The industry expects that polysilicon spot prices will remain high for some time.

Domestic inspections increased 75% year-on-year in January

According to the latest data released by the General Administration of Customs, China imported 5,521 tons of polysilicon in January. Although it decreased by 1.6% month-on-month, it had a year-on-year increase of 74.8% compared with the same period of last year.

This shows that China's polysilicon import volume remained at a high level after hitting a new high in November last year. In November last year, China’s imports of polysilicon reached 6,153 tons, a 160% increase year-on-year, and an increase of 45% from the previous quarter; this figure set a new record of 4,757 tons in September of the same year. Afterwards, it fell back to 5612 tons in December.

Last year, China imported a total of 47,500 tons of polysilicon, with an average monthly import volume of about 3,958 tons. In the first month of 2011, imports were 40% higher than the average level of the previous year. An Taike analyst Xie Chen said that this shows that domestic supply is still tight. Antaike is a market research company directly subordinate to the Research Institute of Non-ferrous Metals Technology. It is one of the authoritative research institutions in the domestic non-ferrous metal industry.

However, Xie Chen also stressed that tight supply is not due to the growth of downstream demand. He told reporters that around the Spring Festival, the domestic polysilicon manufacturers have started routine maintenance and overhaul, which directly led to a decrease in production; at the same time, it also led to scarce polysilicon stocks. In mid-February, they had been out of stock to the point where there was no market, resulting in domestic polysilicon. Spot prices rose after the Spring Festival.

On February 28, Xie Chen told reporters that he understood that domestic polysilicon production has not yet been fully released and it is expected that the import volume in February will continue to remain high.