April 20th News: According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first quarter, the added value of industrial enterprises above a designated size increased by 6.5% year-on-year. The equipment manufacturing industry performed well, and industries such as electronics, automobiles, electrical machinery, and equipment played a significant pulling role. The contribution rate of the industrial sector to macroeconomic growth reached 36.3%.

In the silicone market, the average weekly production capacity utilization rate of the monomer plants of 13 sample enterprises this week was approximately 60.43%, a decrease of 1.06% compared with the previous week, and the weekly output was approximately 40,300 tons. Recently, silicone contract goods have continued to weaken. The main transaction price of DMC contract goods has been declining for five consecutive trading days. Yesterday, the latest DMC quotations from the three major manufacturers dropped by another 300 yuan, reaching 11,500 - 14,300 yuan per ton, and the transaction price hit a new low since March.

A report from a listed monomer giant shows that in 2024, due to factors such as geopolitical conflicts, trade protectionism, and industrial chain restructuring, the global economy showed a pattern of "weak recovery and high differentiation" with a slowdown in overall growth. In China, the macroeconomic policies were mainly focused on "stabilizing growth, promoting investment, and expanding consumption". The downstream demand for silicone benefited from policy support in key fields such as new energy, infrastructure construction, consumer electronics, and automobiles. During the reporting period, although the apparent consumption of silicone steadily increased due to the rapid growth of new application fields such as photovoltaics and new energy vehicles and the restoration of overseas demand, and the export volume also increased significantly, due to the rapid expansion of production capacity on the supply side, the market was unable to digest the incremental supply in the short term. Product prices were under pressure, rising first and then falling. In 2024, the average market price of silicone DMC was 13,900 yuan per ton, a decrease of approximately 6% compared with 2023.