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FOCUS: China’s ferro-silicon export challenges continue amid firm competition Last year appeared to be a challenging period for Chinese exporters of ferro-silicon, with China-origin shipments in the first eleven months declining sharply amid strong competition from Russian and Malaysian suppliers. China exported 329,311 tonnes of ferro-silicon in January-November 2019, a decrease of 39% from the 540,892 tonnes shipped in the corresponding period of 2018, according to official but unconfirmed data seen by Fastmarkets.“Prior to 2008, we were dominating the Asian market,” a China-based producer source said. “The majority of the top 10 suppliers were Chinese alloy producers.” That dynamic has changed dramatically over the past decade after Russian and Malaysian suppliers entered the market with aggressively priced material, reducing Chinese participants’ market share. “Today, only a few Chinese producers with long-term plans are still active in the export market,” the producer source added.