----Interview with Mohammed Chaal, Commercial Director at Ferroglobe PLC
Ferroglobe PLC is a global leader in the production of silicon metal, accounting for 14% of the global production capacity. The company uses state-of-the-art-technology in all its processes to provide the best products, which are critical ingredients in many industrial and consumer products. This business approach allows the company to be at the forefront of silicon-based alloys production, but also provide manganese, ferrosilicon alloys and silica fume among others.
Asian Metal: What are the main grades of silicon metal produced by Ferroglobe?
We produce all the standard grades of metal; 553, 441, 3303, 2202, chemical, that the market needs, we sell this material to Aluminium, Chemical, and Polysilicon consumers globally.
Asian Metal: Ferroglobe now has roughly a 30% share of the Western market, has the merger affected much of your business in Europe?
Our image as a key player in the market in definitively providing a complete range of products and services along the whole supply chain is enhanced by the extra capacity and networks that the merger had brought.
Asian Metal: Production from other companies has fluctuated throughout the last year, how much of an effect did this place on Ferroglobe?
We made some production adjustments in our USA and South African locations; however our main European production base maintained full production of 140,000 tonnes per year over 2016.
Asian Metal: Silicon pricing has ended the year strongly and appears to be maintaining its momentum, how do you feel about pricing for the beginning of 2017?
Prices have been increasing for over a month now and are now soaring strongly and we feel that this will be of a lasting nature over 2017.
Asian Metal: What are the advantages for Ferroglobe-produced silicon metal?
In the North American and European markets, Ferroglobe is located closer to customers plants, which allows for faster delivery, greater flexibility, so we can secure supply chains through a large number of producing plants, at competitive costs.
Asian Metal: What do you think was the main reason behind such low pricing in Europe over 2016?
Brazilian supply was the key driving force towards low pricing; they enjoyed low energy costs for most of the year, a weak BRL/USD exchange rate, and they tried to take as much business as possible over H1-2016 as they arrived a bit late in the negotiation loop of 2016.
Asian Metal: Will the advancements/new applications for high-purity silicon have much of an effect on Ferroglobe moving forward in 2017?
This is more about medium-long term developments and won’t have much of an impact for the short-term.
Asian Metal: What do you see as the main challenges for this industry moving into 2017?
After a year where we saw such a large decline in prices and some of the lowest pricing for several years, improving profitability is the main challenge to the industry.
