Asia Doubles Solar Silicon Factories, Pursuing Gain in Slump
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Asia’s largest makers of silicon for solar panels are almost doubling their factory size this year just as surplus production sends prices tumbling for the main raw material for the $35 billion industry.
Korea’s OCI Co. and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. of China said they’ll increase capacity to a combined 88,000 metric tons a year from 48,000 tons. Global demand for the material, known as polysilicon, is growing at less than a third of that rate, and spot prices fell 32 percent in the second quarter, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated.