Arab Alloys is establishing a US$52M industrial complex in the Suez Canal Economic Zone to produce 48kt of ferrosilicon (FeSi) as well as ferro-silicomanganese (SiMn) and silicon metal.

The project has a lead time of five years to completion according to the company and targets the steel and aluminium markets domestically in Egypt as well as exports targeting Europe and North Africa.

FeSi and SiMn are mainly used in steel making. SiMn has captured much of the growth in ferroalloy supply to steel making as the addition of both manganese and silicon comes with advantages. As a result, several FeSi plants have idled and looked to convert output to silicon metal. Silicon metal is used in certain aluminium applications, but the metal gets an additional energy transition spin from being a critical material for the solar PV industry.

China’s change in pace for steel production will open opportunities for new growth poles in steel, which may reshape the ferroalloy demand landscape, depending on captive supply chains. But if this could see a return to stronger growth in demand for FeSi over other alloy mixtures remains to be seen.