Former management at PV Crystalox’s polysilicon plant in Germany are in talks with the company to acquire the shuttered plant.
According to PV Crystalox the polysilicon plant in Bitterfeld, Germany was due to be decommissioned and the site cleared. To avoid the costs associated with site clearance, the company is keen to sell the plant, possibly with a cash payment to the former plant management, which have secured local grants and subsidies, previously given to PV Crystalox.
The Bitterfeld polysilicon plant had nameplate capacity of 1,800MT per annum before being shutdown in late 2011 when polysilicon prices fell below production costs.
PV Crystalox also said that solar wafer spot prices had stopped declining with a modest improvement in pricing but remained below actual industry production costs.
The company also said it expected its wafer shipments in the first half of the year to be ahead of its shipments in the same period a year ago at 75-85MW, compared to 61MW in the first half of 2012.
The company said that it expected non-Chinese producers to benefit from a “favourable market environment” in the second half of the year due to the anti-dumping duties being imposed on Chinese solar products in the EU.
