The soaring price of memory will severely impact the electronic product market this year. The pricing strategy of Apple's latest devices indicates that the company hopes to leverage the challenges of its competitors to expand its global market share. On Monday, the company released a new entry-level iPhone 17e with a starting price of $599, the same as last year's model. On Wednesday, the company released the entry-level MacBook Neo laptop, also priced at $599, lower than some analysts' previous expectations. Despite the rising cost of internal memory and storage chips in devices, which may erode profits, Apple still maintains its low price strategy.
Organosilicon Market Weekly Report (March 2-8, 2026): Strong closure of supply and demand, "value war" leading a new upward cycle
Last week (as of March 8th), the global silicone market officially began a new upward cycle under the dual effects of active supply contraction and passive cost push. Unlike in the past, this round of price increases is not simply market speculation, but the result of global supply chain restructuring, geopolitical conflicts, and industry synergy shifting towards joint action. As of the weekend, the mainstream quotation for DMC has been raised to 14000-14500 yuan/ton, officially announcing that the industry has shaken off the previous low price quagmire and entered a benign repair channel.
Supply side 'dual contraction': domestic production cuts meet European shutdown
Domestically, we have a firm determination to raise prices. After last week's industry conference, individual factories raised their emission reduction and load reduction targets from March to May to 35%. All individual factories are generally operating at a reduced load, and it is expected that the operating rate in March will remain at around 65%. This coordinated action directly led to a tightening of DMC spot supply, with manufacturers aggressively raising prices and driving the entire line up by 300 yuan/ton.
Overseas supply has experienced structural collapse. The changing global economic trends are forcing traditional chemical giants to strategically shrink in high cost regions. Dow Chemical has confirmed its plan to shut down its 145000 ton/year basic siloxane plant in Bari, UK by mid-2026, which will result in a reduction of nearly one-third of its domestic siloxane production capacity in Europe. Although the direct impact on Asia is limited in the short term, the signal it reflects is significant - under the expectation of high energy costs and carbon tariffs, the withdrawal of European chemical production capacity has become a foregone conclusion. This will not only drive up the supporting costs of the global supply chain in the long run, but also force overseas markets that rely on imports to accept higher price systems. It is worth noting that Dow announced in March that it would implement a price increase of about 5% to 15% for related silicone products starting from March 27th, involving a full range of products such as 107 glue, dimethyl silicone oil, and raw rubber.