REC Silicon to restart Moses Lake by the end of 2023

Norwegian silicon producer REC Silicon plans to restart idled production of polysilicon for the solar industry with fluidized bed reactors at its Moses Lake (Washington, USA) site in the fourth quarter of next year. Full capacity is expected to be reached during 2024. Under preliminary agreements, all of the plant’s output could be purchased from Korea’s Hanwha Group, which holds a one-third stake in REC Silicon since the beginning of the year and invested $109.5 million in capital in the company as part of the transaction. Hanwha’s purchase of silane gas from other REC Silicon plants is also under discussion.
REC Silicon announced its plans to restart Moses Lake along with its first-quarter 2022 results. The company posted revenue of $34.6 million, down 24.9 percent from $43.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), however, were significantly better at $3.6 million (Q4 2021: minus $0.4 million). REC Silicon cited higher sales prices and lower electricity costs compared to the previous quarter as reasons for this. The company has most recently generated revenues exclusively from materials for the semiconductor industry; the »Solar Materials« segment is currently not recording any revenues.
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