EUROALLIAGES > Committees > Silicon Committee

Silicon Committee


Membership

All Silicon-producing Members are represented and actively participate in the activities of the Committee:

  • B.S.I. d.o.o (Bosnia Herzegovina)
  • Elkem (Norway)
  • Grupo FerroGlobe (Spain/France/Norway)
  • PCC Bakkisilicon (Iceland)
  • RW Silicium (Germany)
  • Jugohrom (Macedonia)

Altogether, the above producers represent nearly 100% of Western Europe's capacity of 330,000 tonnes/ year. Including  their plants outside Europe, these companies represent about 30% of Western World production.

The -Silicon Committee is a Trade Committee addressing Commercial Policy issues and making recommendations to the Board in relation to Trade Defence.



Product and its uses

There are two main applications for Silicon metal:

  • As an alloying element for Aluminium alloys for casting and extrusions (www.european-aluminium.eu);
  • As the basic raw material for Silicones produced by the chemical industry

These two applications have more or less the same consumption volume and represent more than 90% of total world silicon metal consumption, although most of the chemical application is found in highly industrialised countries; the remaining part of consumption is shared between ultra-high-purity electronic applications and, more recently, solar applications. The other uses remainmarginal.

Depending on the application, there are several grades of Silicon metal, which differing levels of various impurities (Aluminium, Calcium, Iron, etc).

The production process of Silicon is described under Chapter Production Processes


All Members producing Silicon metal are ISO 9000 certified and most of them are also ISO14000 certified: dedication to quality and environment is the basis for Silicon metal productionin Europe.