According to the customs statistics of Brazil, the import volume of standard ferro-silicon (Si>55%) in the full year 2014 was 17,193 tons, grossly up by 3.8 times as much as 4,503 tons of the prior year. This is because the shortage of ferro-silicon stemming from power shortage was made up for by importation.

Normally, Brazil is a main producing country of ferro-silicon, but the power shortage got prolonged in 2014 due to a record-setting drought and some of ferro-silicon producers cooperated for the electricity buy-back scheme of power companies (buy-back of contracted electricity).

For that reason, as the customers including domestic steel mills in Brazil procured ferro-silicon from overseas and some of ferro-silicon producers did not produce a portion of contract balance by procuring from overseas, unusually big lot of import was recorded. Besides, the all-time high was 23,934 tons in 2008, when the power shortage occurred because the generation of electricity could not catch up with the increased power consumption in Brazil, and the shortage of ferro-silicon as spot goods was covered by importation as is the case in this time.

For a reference, several ferro-silicon producers in Brazil conclude a long-term contract with overseas customers, produce speciality ferro-silicon and ship it. This time, most of them seem to produce a portion of contract balance only and accept neither new contracts nor additional orders.

• [Editor:Phillip.Feng]