Wacker Chemie’s Burghausen site is now complete with additional polycrystalline-silicon production facilities officially on stream. All ‘Expansion Stage 8’ deposition reactors are up and running with the company expecting the plant’s full nominal capacity of 10,000MT a year will be reached before the end of Q2 2010.
Wacker is investing around €500 million in this expansion stage, creating approximately 200 new jobs. The new facilities manufacture material for both the solar sector and the semiconductor market.
During the opening ceremony, CEO Rudolf Staudigl said, “Wacker Polysilicon maintains its position as a key driving force for our profitable growth.”
Expansion Stage 8 has increased Wacker’s annual polysilicon production capacity to over 25,000 tons.
A further plant with a 10,000-ton annual polysilicon capacity is currently being built at Wacker’s Nünchritz site. Bringing Wacker’s total investment in its capacity expansion program, which began back in 2000, to around €2 billion.