The global silicone industry has experienced a long-awaited rebound in 2024. According to industry data, silicone (including raw rubber, mixed rubber, and liquid rubber) is expected to exceed an export volume of 130000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 7%. This marks that after several years of market downturn, the silicone export market has finally ushered in strong growth momentum, becoming a new opportunity for the industry. However, in the long run, the growth rate of the silicone market is still difficult to maintain, and industry insiders generally predict that the industry's growth will slow down from 2025 onwards. It is expected that the compound annual growth rate will decrease to around 3% between 2025 and 2028. As the market enters the stage of stock competition, especially among large organic silicon enterprises, competition becomes increasingly fierce, and every market share becomes more rare.
In terms of market prices, the overall price of silicone remained stable this week. The transaction prices of raw rubber and mixed rubber have not fluctuated much, and some orders have even experienced slight price increases. At present, silicone enterprises are generally in the low load production stage, so it is expected that the prices of raw rubber and mixed rubber will remain stable in January. Despite the slow recovery of demand for rubber compounds and the difficulty in reducing inventory, it is expected that spot prices will remain volatile in the bottom range. As of December 30th, the online price of Luxi hydrolysate is 12300 yuan/ton, the mainstream spot price of DMC is between 13000 and 13800 yuan/ton, the mainstream spot price of raw rubber is between 14300 and 14700 yuan/ton, and the quotation of 107 rubber is between 14000 and 14200 yuan/ton. Domestic silicone oil prices range from 14800 to 16500 yuan/ton, while imported silicone oil prices are reported at 18500 to 19500 yuan/ton. At the same time, the price of 421 # metallic silicon ranges from 12500 to 13100 yuan/ton, the price of methyl chloride ranges from 2650 to 2750 yuan/ton, and the mainstream price of high hydrogen silicone oil ranges from 7500 to 7800 yuan/ton.
Of particular note is that the raw rubber market has recently shown an upward trend, mainly due to manufacturers' inventory being almost depleted, and many companies urgently need to replenish their inventory. Therefore, the pace of procurement has accelerated, and domestic demand has also seen a significant increase by the end of the year, driving up the price of raw rubber. In addition, due to the impact of price increases, silicon product companies have begun to transmit prices to upstream suppliers, forming a stronger driving force for price increases.
In terms of enterprises, Jiangsu Aikewei Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aikewei") has also received significant news recently. On December 26th, the prospectus of Aikewei was officially disclosed, marking the official start of its listing process. The company plans to publicly issue no more than 26.6667 million shares and raise 600 million yuan, of which 60 million yuan will be used for the development of high-end fine chemical projects in the oxime series. As a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and development, production, and sales of oxime series fine chemical products, Aikewei has been committed to expanding its "oxime+" product matrix. Its main products include oxime type silane (such as methyl tributone oxime silane, vinyl tributone oxime silane, etc.). For Aikevi, this listing is not only an opportunity for financing, but also an important step to further enhance the company's competitiveness in segmented markets.