Market Overview: The domestic DMC market prices remain stable, with an average price of around 12650 yuan/ton. Most production companies have kept their quotations unchanged, but the performance of inventory and pre-sale orders differs, causing companies to seek a balance between price hikes and shipments. Today's market quotations and negotiation atmosphere remain overall stable. Due to high inventory levels, most downstream markets remain on the sidelines, with average new order transactions. Raw material side: high cost pressure, metal silicon maintains a weak and stable market. Supply side: Maintenance of local individual units, short-term pressure on the supply side. Demand side: The market atmosphere is flat in the short term.

The "silicone" department affected by this restructuring provides a full range of silicone products, such as non stick coatings, technical elastomers, special fluids, lotion and resins. It serves various markets, from energy to cosmetics, electronics, aerospace, automotive, health, and construction. Why did the group make this decision when the operating profit of the department was 2% higher than in 2023 and the pre tax, depreciation, and amortization profit increased by approximately 800 million Norwegian kroner (69 million euros) (from -672 million Norwegian kroner in 2023 to 145 million Norwegian kroner in September 2024)? The group explained that "several factors have played a role, including constantly changing market conditions, competitive landscape, and the strategic focus of our business unit." He said, "In China, the real estate market has been declining since 2021, leading to overcapacity in China, which has affected the demand for construction products and put pressure on sales prices." Therefore, Eken is studying various options, including selling its silicone division. The team does not wish to communicate about potential production shutdowns at this stage. But Saint Vincent and Roussillon in France, as well as Shanghai, Starfire, Guangdong, and Yongdeng in China, will be the focus of this review, including other regions in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The silicon products department will benefit from this capital redistribution, mainly providing silicon, ferrosilicon, casting products, and other specialty products to industrial participants in the silicon, aluminum, and polycrystalline silicon industries. The end markets are construction, consumer goods, automobiles, renewable energy, and electronic products. The Carbon Solutions department is also a beneficiary, providing carbon electrodes for melting metal alloys, electrode slurries for manufacturing metal alloys, insulation slurries to prevent metal leakage in aluminum electrolysis cells (producing aluminum metal), and other carbon based products in the ferroalloy industry, such as silicon and aluminum.