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Silicon metal is usually classified according to the content of iron, aluminum and calcium, the three main impurities contained in the silicon metal composition. According to the content of iron, aluminum and calcium in silicon metal, silicon metal can be divided into 553, 441, 411, 421, 3303, 3305, 2202, 2502, 1501, 1101 and other different grades. In industry, silicon metal is usually made by reducing silicon dioxide from carbon in an electric furnace. Chemical reaction equation: SiO2 + 2C → Si + 2CO so that the purity of silicon is 97~98%, called silicon metal. After melting, recrystallization, impurities removed with acid, the purity of 99.7~99.8% silicon metal was obtained. Silicon metal is composed mainly of silicon and thus has similar properties to silicon. There are two allotropes of amorphous silicon and crystalline silicon. Amorphous silicon is a gray-black powder that is actually a microcrystal. Crystalline silicon has the crystal structure and semiconductor properties of diamond, melting point 1410℃, boiling point 2355℃, density 2.32 ~ 2.34 g/cm 3, Mohs hardness 7, brittle. Amorphous silicification has active chemical properties and can burn intensely in oxygen. It can react with nonmetals such as halogen, nitrogen and carbon at high temperature, and can also react with metals such as magnesium, calcium and iron to produce silicides. Amorphous silicon is almost insoluble in all inorganic and organic acids, including hydrofluoric acid, but soluble in the mixture of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid. Concentrated sodium hydroxide solution can dissolve amorphous silicon and release hydrogen gas. Crystalline silicon is relatively inactive and does not vaporize with oxygen even at high temperatures. It is insoluble in any kind of inorganic and organic acids, but soluble in a mixture of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid and in concentrated sodium hydroxide solutions. Post time: Jun-01-2022

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Ferrosilicon, an alloy of silicon and iron, is available in 45%, 65%, 75% and 90% silicon grades. Its use is very wide, then the ferrosilicon manufacturer Anhui Fitech Materials Co.,Ltd will analyze its specific uses from the following three points. Firstly, it is used as deoxidizer and alloying agent in steelmaking industry. In order to obtain steel with qualified chemical composition and ensure the quality of steel, deoxidation must be carried out at the end of steelmaking. The chemical affinity between silicon and oxygen is very large. Therefore, ferrosilicon is a strong deoxidizer for steelmaking, which is used for precipitation and diffusion deoxidation. Adding a certain amount of silicon to the steel can significantly improve the strength, hardness and elasticity of the steel. Therefore, ferrosilicon is also used as an alloying agent when smelting structural steel (containing silicon 0.40-1.75%), tool steel (containing silicon 0.30-1.8%), spring steel (containing silicon 0.40-2.8%) and silicon steel for transformer (containing silicon 2.81-4.8%). In addition, in the steel-making industry, ferrosilicon powder can release a large amount of heat under high temperature. It is often used as the heating agent of ingot cap to improve the quality and recovery of ingot. Secondly, it is used as inoculant and spheroidizing agent in cast iron industry. Cast iron is an important metal material in modern industry. It is cheaper than steel and easy to melt and smelt. It has excellent casting properties and much better shock ability than steel. Especially nodular cast iron, its mechanical properties reach or approach the mechanical properties of steel. Adding a certain amount of ferrosilicon to cast iron can prevent the formation of carbide in iron and promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite. Therefore, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (to help precipitate graphite) and spheroidizing agent in the production of nodular cast iron. In addition, it is used as reducing agent in ferroalloy production. Not only the chemical affinity between silicon and oxygen is great, but also the carbon content of high silicon ferrosilicon is very low. Therefore, high silicon ferrosilicon (or siliceous alloy) is a common reducing agent in the production of low-carbon ferroalloy in ferroalloy industry. Post time: May-07-2022

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In March 2022, the output of magnesium ingots in China was 86,800 tons, an increase of 4.33% annually and 30.83% year-on-year, with a cumulative output of 247,400 tons, an increase of 26.20% year-on-year. In March, the output of domestic magnesium plants maintained a high level. According to the existing production plan of magnesium plants, some factories in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia have maintenance plans in April, and the maintenance time is expected to be one month, which will affect the output of each factory by 50% -100% in that month. Considering that the follow-up semi-coke rectification rules in the main production area have not yet been issued, in order to cope with the impact of the follow-up semi-coke policy on supply, the overall inventory acceptance of magnesium plants is high. Under the current profit support, it is expected that domestic magnesium plants will maintain a high production enthusiasm in April, and the output of magnesium ingots will be about 82000 tons. Post time: Apr-08-2022

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The production capacity and output of manganese tetroxide in China ranks first in the world, and the domestic production capacity is mainly concentrated in Hunan, Anhui and Guizhou. Domestic top 5 enterprises account for about 88% of global production capacity. Manganese tetroxide is an oxide, which is an important basic raw material for electronics and new energy. It can be used to produce soft magnetic manganese zinc ferrite, lithium manganese oxide as cathode material for lithium battery, negative temperature coefficient thermistor and so on. In addition, with the continuous research and breakthrough in recent years, manganese tetroxide has also been applied in the fields of pigment, thermistor, oil drilling mud weight increasing agent and so on, and the market demand is high. After decades of development, the production technology of manganese tetroxide  in China has gradually matured. At present, the methods to realize industrial production mainly include metal manganese oxidation method, manganese salt method, manganese carbonate decomposition method and so on. The production capacity and output of Manganese tetroxide in China ranks first in the world, and the domestic production capacity is mainly concentrated in Hunan, Anhui and Guizhou. Domestic top 5 enterprises account for about 88% of global production capacity. According to the in-depth market research and development prospect prediction report of China’s manganese tetroxide industry from 2022 to 2027 released by xinsijie Industrial Research Center, Manganese tetroxide can be divided into electronic grade and battery grade, which are used to produce manganese zinc ferrite and lithium battery cathode materials respectively, with high demand in China. In 2018, the production capacity of Manganese tetroxide in China was about 110000 tons, of which the production capacity of electronic grade Manganese tetroxide was as high as 98000 tons, and the total sales volume was 78000 tons. In the past two years, the production technology of battery grade trimanganese tetroxide has also become mature, the production process includes electrolytic manganese method and manganese salt method, etc. The products produced have high compaction density, good capacity performance, high purity and high application demand. In recent years, the output of battery grade manganese tetroxide in China has continued to rise, reaching 24000 tons in 2019. Compared with battery-grade Manganese tetroxide, in 2018, electronic-grade Manganese tetroxide benefited from the development of electrical appliances and new energy automotive industry, and the market demand showed an increasing trend. Generally speaking, with the upgrading of electrical appliances and the development of new energy automotive industry, there are still opportunities for development in the field of battery-grade manganese tetroxide, but the excess capacity of electronic-grade manganese tetroxide is serious, and the future development space is small. Manganese tetroxide has a wide range of applications, benefiting from the development of new energy automotive and electrical industry, battery grade Manganese tetroxide products have market development space in the future. The production technology of manganese tetroxide in China is mature, and China has become the main production country of manganese tetroxide Manganese tetroxide  in the world, with high market concentration and few opportunities for the development of new enterprises. Post time: Apr-02-2022

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Manganese ore spot overall stable, but the oxide ore and the southern half will be differentiated.The main reasons are as below: 1. At present, the port spot sales price is basically flat compared with the arrival cost, in the case of several months of continuous upside-down, traders are not willing to ship at low prices; 2. From the recent arrival situation and ship table forecast, at the same time during the Spring Festival warehouse decline, port inventory has the possibility of further increase, but mostly for South Africa mine, port latest inventory of 1.42 million tons, of which: South Africa mine in about 690000 tons, accounting for nearly half of the total inventory, the southern half in about 280000 tons, Australia mine, Gabon two mainstream oxide ore inventory of about 510000 tons; 3. After the festival, the resumption of production of early shutdown plants in Guangxi is uncertain, depending on electricity charges and alloy prices. To sum up, after the Spring Festival, due to the further increase of the total inventory of manganese ore, market sentiment may be affected to a certain extent, but due to the large proportion of South African ore in port inventory, the proportion of oxidized ore is relatively small, at the same time, the concentration of cargo rights is high, and the cost of late arrival is not low, oxidized ore is easy to go up. Post time: Jan-25-2022

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(1) The strength and hardness of pure magnesium polycrystals are not high. Therefore, pure magnesium cannot be directly used as a structural material. Pure magnesium is usually used to prepare magnesium alloys and other alloys. (2) Magnesium alloy is the green engineering material with the most development and application potential in the 21st century. Magnesium can form alloys with aluminum, copper, zinc, zirconium, thorium and other metals. Compared with pure magnesium, this alloy has better mechanical properties and is a good structural material. Although wrought magnesium alloys have good comprehensive properties, magnesium is a close-packed hexagonal lattice, which is difficult to plastically process and has high processing costs. Therefore, the current amount of wrought magnesium alloys is much smaller than that of cast magnesium alloys. There are dozens of elements in the periodic table that can form alloys with magnesium. Magnesium and iron, beryllium, potassium, sodium, etc. cannot form alloys. Among the applied magnesium alloy strengthening elements, according to the influence of alloying elements on the mechanical properties of binary magnesium alloys, alloying elements can be divided into three categories: 1. The elements that improve strength are: Al, Zn, Ag, Ce, Ga, Ni, Cu, Th. 2. The elements that improve toughness are: Th, Ga, Zn, Ag, Ce, Ca, Al, Ni, Cu. 3. Elements that enhance toughness without much change in strength: Cd, Ti, and Li. 4. Elements that significantly increase strength and decrease toughness: Sn, Pd, Bi, Sb. The influence of impurity elements in magnesium A. Most of the impurities contained in magnesium have adverse effects on the mechanical properties of magnesium. B. When MgO exceeds 0.1%, the mechanical properties of magnesium will be reduced. When the content of C and Na exceeds 0.01% or the content of K exceeds 0.03, the tensile strength and other mechanical properties of magnesium will also be greatly reduced. D. But when both the Na content reaches 0.07% and the K content reaches 0.01%, the strength of magnesium does not decrease, but only its plasticity. The corrosion resistance of high-purity magnesium alloy is equivalent to that of aluminum 1. Magnesium alloy matrix is close-packed hexagonal lattice, magnesium is more active, and oxide film is loose, so its casting, plastic deformation and anti-corrosion process are more complicated than aluminum alloy. 2. The corrosion resistance of high-purity magnesium alloys is equivalent to or even lower than that of aluminum alloys. Therefore, the industrial production of high-purity magnesium alloys is an urgent problem to be solved in the mass application of magnesium alloys. Post time: Dec-06-2021

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Thiourea, with molecular formula of (NH2)2CS, is a white orthorhombic or acicular bright crystal. The industrial methods for preparing thiourea include amine thiocyanate method, lime nitrogen method, urea method, etc. In the lime nitrogen method, lime nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide gas and water are used for hydrolysis, addition reaction, filtration, crystallization and drying in the synthesis kettle to obtain the finished product. This method has the advantages of short process flow, no pollution, low cost and good product quality. At present, most of factories adopt the lime nitrogen method to prepare thiourea. From the market situation, China is the largest thiourea producer in the world. In addition to meeting domestic demand, its products are also exported to Japan, Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions. In terms of downstream application, thiourea is widely used as raw materials for manufacturing pesticides, pharmaceuticals, electronic chemicals, chemical additives, as well as gold flotation agent. In recent years, thiourea production in China has developed to a certain extent, with a capacity of 80,000 tons/year and more than 20 manufacturers, of which more than 90% are barium salt manufacturers. In Japan, there are 3 companies producing thiourea. In recent years, due to the depletion of ore, the increase of energy costs, environmental pollution and other reasons, the output of barium carbonate has declined year by year, resulting in the reduction of the production of hydrogen sulfide, which limits the production of thiourea. Despite the rapid growth of market demand, the production capacity is sharply reduced. The output is about 3000 tons/year, while the market demand is around 6000 tons/year, and the gap is imported from China. There are two companies in Europe, SKW Company in Germany and SNP Company in France, with a total output of 10,000 tons per year. With the continuous development of thiourea in pesticides and other new uses, The Netherlands and Belgium have become big consumers of thiourea. The annual market consumption in The European market is about 30,000 tons, of which 20,000 tons need to be imported from China. ROBECO company in the United States has an annual output of thiourea of about 10,000 tons/year, but due to increasingly strict environmental protection, the output of thiourea decreases year by year, which is far from meeting market demand. It needs to import more than 5,000 tons of thiourea from China every year, mainly used in pesticide, medicine and other fields Post time: Dec-06-2021

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Gallium prices spiked in late 2020, closing the year at US$264/kg Ga (99.99%, ex-works), according to Asian Metal. That is nearly double the mid-year price. As of 15 January 2021, the price had risen to US$282/kg. A temporary supply/demand imbalance has caused the uptick and market sentiment is that prices will return to normal before long. However, Fitech’s view is that a new ‘normal’ will be established. Fitech View Supply of primary gallium is not constrained by production capacity and, as it is essentially a derivative of the huge alumina industry in China, availability of raw materials feedstock is not normally an issue. Like all minor metals, however, it has its vulnerabilities. China is the world’s leading producer of aluminium and its industry is supplied with bauxite mined domestically and imported. The bauxite is then is refined to alumina with the resulting mother liquor used to extract gallium by companies that are very often integrated with the aluminium producers. Only a handful of alumina refineries worldwide have gallium recovery circuits and they are almost all in China. In mid-2019, the Chinese government began a series of environmental inspections on the country’s bauxite-mining operations. Those resulted in a shortage of bauxite from Shanxi province, which is where about half of Chinese primary gallium is produced. The alumina refineries were forced to switch to imported bauxite feedstocks. The key issue with this change is that Chinese bauxite typically has a high gallium content and imported material usually does not. Gallium extraction became more costly and the cost pressures were increased as the shut downs also came at the time of year when high temperatures often cause a drop in output, because the ion-exchange resins used to recover gallium are less efficient (they were also reportedly high-cost in 2019). As a consequence, there were numerous shut downs of Chinese gallium plants, some prolonged, and total production in the country, and thus in the world, fell by over 20% in 2020. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 precipitated a fall in demand for primary gallium, as was the case with many commodities. The result was a sharp downturn in international buying activity, as consumers resorted to drawing down inventory. As a consequence, many Chinese gallium producers delayed restarting their operations. The inevitable crunch came during the second half of 2020, as inventories were depleted and demand picked up before supply did. Gallium prices skyrocketed, although in reality there was little material available for purchase. By year-end, monthly producer stocks in China were only 15t, down 75% y-o-y. The industry press reported that the situation was expected to return to normal quite soon. Supply certainly recovered and, by year-end, was back to the level seen in the first half of 2019. Prices have continued to climb, however. As of mid-January 2021, it seems very likely that the industry is in a period of restocking due to the combination of high prices, low producer inventory and operating rates in many parts of China that are now back to 80%+ of capacity. Once stock levels are back to more typical levels, buying activity should slow, with prices easing. Demand for gallium is going to rise sharply because of the growth in 5G networks. For some years, the metal has been under sold at prices that do not reflect its true value and it is Roskill’s belief is that prices will ease in Q1 2021, but that the floor price of 4N gallium will be raised going forward. Post time: Dec-06-2021

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Currently , China’s national standard silicon calcium 3058 grade mainstream export price in at FOB 1480-1530 US dollars / ton, up 30 US dollars / ton.  In July, 8 /11 submerged arc furnaces on the market to produce silicon calcium,   3 been in repairs. The corresponding output reduction, while the downstream demand is stable, the price increase is expected, but because the previous all manufacturers have high inventory, the price rise space is limited.       At present, the demand for silicon calcium in market has improved slightly, and manufacturers have more orders. One Shaanxi silicon calcium manufacturers have revealed that the actual transaction price of their own silicon-calcium alloy has increased by 100 RMB/ton. In recent days, the demand for silicon-calcium alloy has improved slightly,  the old customers’ order are running. At the same time, there are new customers enquiring and a small amount of transactions had been done. It is expected that in the market outlook, before the production of the mine thermal furnace is completed, the price trend of the silicon-calcium alloy may remain the status  . After the off-season in July and August, the demand may be boosted. According to a producer in the North of china last week, he said that his 3058 grade offer FOB 1530/ton, which was $30/ton higher than before, could not accept any counter-offer, and rejected the 100-ton firm order on the same day. Their target price of the customer was FOB 1500/ton. Because his lowest acceptable price is $1,530/ton, considering that some manufacturers have recently stopped production and maintenance, and at the same time, the supply of raw materials and silica is tight, he expects that the price of silicon calcium will continue to rise in the future. According to a trader, he currently quotes FOB1520/ton for silicon calcium 3058 grade, which is $50/ton higher than before. He currently sells 50 tons at FOB1500/ton. According to him, three of his five suppliers are in order to produce orders, and the spot goods is lacked, especially the goods of the national standard  casi calss 1st  are more tense. According to the market supply and demand relationship and market trends, due to the shutdown of the upstream furnace manufacturers in July, the output was reduced accordingly. However, due to the pre-inventory of various manufacturers, the price increase space is limited, and the three furnaces currently being repaired, There has already been one producer supply.   several other furnaces will be sent to electricity production, so the price will not be affected. However, according to another understanding, the supply of raw materials silica and coal is relatively tight, especially under  the impact of environmental inspection on silica mines, resulting in tight supply of silica and poor raw materials. At the same time, on the one hand, the price of silicon-calcium in the market is close to the production cost, and manufacturers have no space for price reduction. On the other hand, it is close to the 70th anniversary of China . The manufacturers said that the state control is more stringent, and the later production and processing may be  difficult ,It is predicted that in the market outlook, the price trend of silicon-calcium alloy will remain the status quo before the production of the hot-steam furnace of the manufacturer is completed. After the off-season in July and August, demand may be boosted. Above inforamtion just for reference. Post time: Dec-06-2021

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