A fire yesterday at SiC Processing AS, which supplies slurry for REC’s wafering operations at two of its latest production plants, Herøya III and IV, could impact production if the shutdown at SiC Processing’s two slurry plants at the Herøya industrial complex is lengthy. The slurry firm is taking the precaution to check both plants and identify the root cause of the fire before resuming production.
SiC Processing was unable to estimate how long the shutdown would be in force. REC said it was investigating possible alternative sources for the slurry, should it experience a prolonged interruption of the slurry supply from SiC Processing.
The SiC Processing supplies slurry to both the photovoltaic industry and the semiconductor industry and has a production capacity of 165.000 tons per year. By the end of 2010, the company expects production to reach 215.000 tons/year worldwide equivalent to 5.4GW of wafering capacity.
