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Applied Materials Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Splinter, expects capital spending in the photovoltaics industry to decline by approximately 50% in 2009 as access to capital, over-capacity and weaker demand due to the global economic recession is limiting PV manufacturers' expansion plans this year.

Splinter also said in Applied’s quarterly conference call with financial analysts that smaller PV manufacturers were already failing due to being unable to sell modules. This was particularly true of small China-based module manufacturers, Splinter noted.

However, the larger companies were faring better, according to Splinter.

“The bigger companies are still able to finance and still able to add capacity. We gave you an estimate that revenue, or that spending, capital spending would be down about 50% year-over-year. But the big players can still get money and still finance their capacity,” noted Splinter.