Several leading companies recently admitted that the current difficulties faced by the industry are closely related to the previous crazy expansion. In the past few years, seeing the promising development prospects of the silicone industry, as well as some local tax exemptions and electricity price preferential measures, many enterprises entered the silicone industry, and the leading manufacturers in the industry also expanded their financing, ultimately resulting in a comprehensive oversupply situation in the industry. Nowadays, in order for the organic silicon industry to improve, it still has to go through the pain of clearing production capacity. At present, the fundamental situation of oversupply in the silicone industry has not changed. Coupled with the downward trend in the export environment, the industry is still in the bottom adjustment stage. Some small enterprises lacking financial strength and scale effects are facing the risk of elimination, and the industry concentration is expected to continue to increase.
This week, the DMC market remained weak and stable, fluctuating between 50-100 yuan/ton and reporting at 12800-13700 yuan/ton. Low price transactions were the main focus of the market, with a transaction volume of 13050 yuan/ton. Luxi DMC website reported an opening price of 128 million yuan/ton, while Hesheng DMC reported a price of 13500 yuan/ton. The quotation remained stable, with individual individual enterprise orders mainly being sold at a discount. However, due to the weakening of downstream stocking demand, the acceptance of orders is relatively average, and the industry believes that low prices will be the main trend in the future. As of January 8th, the Luxi hydrolysate website reported a price of 12300 yuan/ton, the mainstream spot price for DMC was 12800-13700 yuan/ton, the mainstream spot price for raw rubber was 14300-14700 yuan/ton, the mainstream price for 107 rubber was 14000-14200 yuan/ton, the mainstream price for domestic silicone oil was 14800-16500 yuan/ton, and the mainstream price for imported silicone oil was 18500-19500 yuan/ton. 421 # metal silicon is reported at 12500-13100 yuan/ton, chloromethane is reported at 2650-2750 yuan/ton, and high hydrogen silicone oil mainstream is reported at 7500-7800 yuan/ton. Analysis has pointed out that the concentration of the silicone industry has significantly increased in recent years, and downstream industries have been affected by this, resulting in an accelerated increase in concentration. At the same time, with the possibility of changes in raw material prices, downstream enterprises' procurement advantages and cost control capabilities will become even more important in 2025. Looking ahead to 2025, the inventory level of the organic silicon industry is expected to recover, and the year-on-year decline in downstream industry production is expected to narrow. From the perspective of industry going global, the cracking field is one of the earliest factories for domestic organic silicon enterprises to establish factories overseas, with cracking plant layouts in many Southeast Asian countries. Compared to domestic markets, overseas markets have lower levels of competition and higher gross profit margins.
Another organic silicon company failed to go public, with a net profit exceeding 5 billion yuan! Global Organic Silicon Network learned that recently, silicon material leader Xinte Energy Co., Ltd. terminated its IPO on the Shanghai Main Board due to voluntarily withdrawing its listing application. It is reported that the listing application of Xinte Energy was accepted in March 2023 and successfully passed the meeting in September of the same year. At present, the prices of the organic silicon and photovoltaic industry chains are sluggish, and the industry is still in a severe period of development pains. Organic silicon companies have weak willingness to continue expanding production. In addition, the A-share market has slowed down the pace of IPOs and tightened entry barriers, making it increasingly difficult for organic silicon companies to raise funds and go public. It is reported that Xinte Energy was established in February 2008. It is a subsidiary of the A-share listed company TBEA, which is a leading domestic silicon material enterprise. The number of employees reached 8423 in 2024. The revenue in 2023 exceeded 30 billion yuan. The company's products include: organosilicon, white carbon black, gamma chloropropyltriethoxysilane, gamma chloropropyltrimethoxysilane, phenyltrimethoxysilane, phenyltrichlorosilane, vinyltrichlorosilane, vinyltrimethoxysilane, polycrystalline silicon, silicon nitride, etc. From 2020 to 2023, the company's revenue was 14.085 billion yuan, 22.355 billion yuan, 36.445 billion yuan, and 30.511 billion yuan, respectively, with net profits of 828 million yuan, 5.384 billion yuan, 14.32 billion yuan, and 5.118 billion yuan, respectively. Xinte Company has successfully built a "silicon-based new energy green circular economy industrial chain" integrating the research and development of silicon-based new materials, new energy core equipment, and wind and solar resources, and is committed to creating a new industrial development model of "producing green products with green electricity". In the field of polycrystalline silicon, Xinte Energy adheres to focusing on the advantages of its main business, while continuously extending and strengthening its supply chain in combination with industry characteristics and development needs, creating a strategic development pattern of mutual support between silicon-based new materials and energy-saving and environmental protection industries.
Two global visual content copyright giants, Getty Images and Shutterstock, announced on Tuesday that they have reached a final merger agreement. Getty Images' shareholders will hold 54.7% of the new company's shares, with the remaining 45.3% belonging to Shutterstock's shareholders. According to the situation in 2024, the annual revenue of the merged new company will reach 1.979-1.993 billion US dollars. Two well-known authorized visual content service providers hope to merge to form a deeper and broader library of static images, videos, music, and other media content. Meanwhile, stronger financial strength can also support new companies to make greater investments in cutting-edge technologies and innovations such as search and AI.
Against the backdrop of soaring profits, ship owners have ordered a record number of container ships, triggering warnings about the extravagant spending of a few large ship owners who dominate the industry. According to Braemar's data, the total capacity of container ships ordered in November reached 8.4 million 20 foot containers, the highest level since the ship broker began collecting data in 2000. Despite the uncertainty in the global trade outlook, record breaking order volumes have emerged, even surpassing the levels achieved during the pandemic when revenue growth was disrupted.
McDonald's announced on Monday that it will cancel its diversity goals for its employees and suppliers, becoming the latest major company to comprehensively adjust its diversity, fairness, and inclusivity strategy. The company also stated that it will not release new representative targets for its employees, but will continue to report data related to diversity in its workforce. McDonald's stated that it will also discuss inclusivity issues with suppliers during business reviews.