Dumping from Beijing Is Destroying russia’s Capacities: Its Silicon Industry Is on the Verge of Vanishing

russia’s metal silicon industry has been experiencing its deepest crisis in recent years: production in 2025 decreased by about a third. The main factors are China’s aggressive pricing policy and chronic overproduction, which allows Beijing to sell silicon at dumping rates and effectively drive russian producers out of their own domestic market.

The largest russian producer, “Kremniy” JSC, has announced that it will cease operations completely in January 2026. Another key player, “Kremniy-Ural”, is still maintaining production but will be operating at significantly reduced capacity. Both companies claim that the domestic market is completely unprotected from Chinese imports, although the kremlin officially positions its relations with Beijing as a “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation”.

The situation is exacerbated by the structure of russian demand. In the rf, metallic silicon is mainly consumed by non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy for the production of alloys. On global markets, this material has a much wider range of applications – first of all in electronics, and manufacturing of semiconductors and solar panels. However, russia produces almost no high-purity components for these industries: the country lacks the necessary technologies and imports most of products from China.

This strategic imbalance only exacerbates the crisis. Chinese companies can meet the rf’s annual demand for metallic silicon in less than three weeks of operation. Against this background, investors see no point in investing in the modernization of russian facilities, which are uncompetitive compared to Chinese production scale and cost.

As a result, the russian industry is under systemic threat: the domestic market is flooded with cheap Chinese silicon, domestic producers are reducing or halting their activities, and the government, due to the political sensitivity of relations with Beijing, is avoiding any protectionist measures. This situation effectively preserves russia’s dependence on China in both the raw materials and technology segments of the production chain.