Wacker Chemie sees no decrease in polysilicon demand

[FarCenter]

Christoph Hammerschmidt - EE Times Europe http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212101025&cid=NL_eet

MUNICH, Germany — Amidst gloomy predictions for the semiconductor industry, Wacker Chemie (Munich, Germany) has started a new production reactor for polysilicon. The material can be used for chip manufacturing as well as for photovoltaics. There is no decrease in demand, the company said.

Thursday (Nov. 20), the company officially launched a production line at its site in Burghausen (Germany), well ahead of its schedule. It is part of a program announced month ago a aiming at increasing the company's production capacity to a total of 35,000 metric tons per year. The new production line will contribute to this goal with a capacity of 4,500 metric tons which will be reached by end of Q1/2009.

The material produced suits for semiconductors as well as for photovoltaic applications. While the demand from chip manufacturers might have decreased lately, there is no problem to sell it anyway, a company spokesperson said. "We have sold out 80 percent of our capacity until 2015. The remainder can easily be sold at spot markets for a good price," he said. "The demand from PV companies is significantly higher than we can supply. There is absolutely no crisis in photovoltaics. The demand is unbowed."