Sino-American Silicon Secures Silicon Material Supplies From OCI

Taipei, April 6, 2011 (CENS)--Regardless of reports that demands for crystalline silicon wafers are losing steam, Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. recently announced signing a pact to procure US$301 million worth of raw crystalline silicon materials in five years from OCI of South Korea.

Sino-American Silicon executives pointed out that demands for polycrystalline silicon materials remain strong as players across the solar-cell industry are vigorously expanding capacities, prompting suppliers of crystalline silicon wafers like Sino-American Silicon to compete for more supply sources of the raw materials.

They added that the procurement contract will ensure steady raw material supplies to support the company's expansion plan, which in the initial stage is set to increase output to 1.1-1.2 gigawatts at the end of this June.

However, industry watchers pointed out that pricing of silicon wafers has recently lost strength as the demand in major European markets has turned moderate.

According to surveys recently released by market research organization Energy Trend, although price quotations of polycrystalline silicon have lingered at high levels, prices of silicon wafers have lost around 3.3% over the past week.

Sino-American Silicon executives conceded that solar-energy market has turned lackluster recently mostly because of the lingering uncertainty about what Germany's revised feed-in-tariff policy would turn out to be. Germany is currently the world's biggest market for solar energy.