News Article
Wacker Expands Silicon Output
Polysilicon facilities start up at Wacker’s Burghausen site and creates new jobs.
Additional polycrystalline silicon production facilities officially came on stream at Wacker Chemie's Burghausen site. The first 'Expansion Stage 7' reactors are already up and running. The plant's full nominal capacity of 4,500 metric tons a year is expected to be reached before the end of Q1 2009. Wacker is thus well ahead of its original, very tight schedule. Overall, Wacker is investing €300 million in this expansion stage, thereby creating some 270 new jobs. Expanding output enables Wacker to meet soaring global demand for hyper-pure polycrystalline silicon. The new facilities can manufacture material for both the booming solar sector and the semiconductor market.
During the opening ceremony, Ewald Schindlbeck, Wacker Polysilicon president, explained the Munich based chemical company's ambitious investment programme to expand its production capacities for hyper-pure polycrystalline silicon. The ongoing and planned extensions to Wacker's Burghausen and Nünchritz sites will, by year end 2011, boost annual polysilicon capacity from the current 10,000 to over 35,000 tons. By 2011, Wacker will have invested almost €2 billion in its capacity expansion programme, which began back in 2000.
The current 'Expansion Stage 7' is fully linked with the Burghausen site's integrated silicon production system. In this highly integrated material loop, by-products are recycled as starter materials for use elsewhere in the supply chain. This cuts costs, while conserving resources and strengthening the site's competitiveness. In total, polysilicon expansion will create some 650 new jobs at the Burghausen plant by late 2010.
In his speech, divisional head Schindlbeck thanked everyone involved in the project, both in-house staff and partner firms, for their tremendous efforts. This, he said, was one of the main reasons Wacker can supply its customers with 'Expansion Stage 7' polysilicon several months earlier than planned.
During the opening ceremony, Ewald Schindlbeck, Wacker Polysilicon president, explained the Munich based chemical company's ambitious investment programme to expand its production capacities for hyper-pure polycrystalline silicon. The ongoing and planned extensions to Wacker's Burghausen and Nünchritz sites will, by year end 2011, boost annual polysilicon capacity from the current 10,000 to over 35,000 tons. By 2011, Wacker will have invested almost €2 billion in its capacity expansion programme, which began back in 2000.
The current 'Expansion Stage 7' is fully linked with the Burghausen site's integrated silicon production system. In this highly integrated material loop, by-products are recycled as starter materials for use elsewhere in the supply chain. This cuts costs, while conserving resources and strengthening the site's competitiveness. In total, polysilicon expansion will create some 650 new jobs at the Burghausen plant by late 2010.
In his speech, divisional head Schindlbeck thanked everyone involved in the project, both in-house staff and partner firms, for their tremendous efforts. This, he said, was one of the main reasons Wacker can supply its customers with 'Expansion Stage 7' polysilicon several months earlier than planned.
