Japan’s Tokuyama says solar market in a bubble
Tokyo, Nov 5, 2007
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSTKG00285520071105
Japanese chemicals and silicon maker Tokuyama Corp. said on Monday the market for solar cells in in a bubble situation. “The market is very feverish,” Managing Director Yukio Muranaga told Reuters in an interview. “I have no doubt that demand for solar batteries will grow, but I don’t think it will grow at 30 percent or 40 percent a year as people seem to think.”
Tokuyama, the world’s No. 2 maker of polycrystalline silicon after U.S. firm Hemlock, is gauging growing demand for silicon as microchip and solar cell makers ramp up production. Tokuyama, which supplies silicon to wafer makers such as SUMCO Techxiv Corp (5977.T: Quote, Profile, Research), now plans to build a plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, to raise annual capacity by close to 60 percent to 8,200 tonnes in the spring of 2009.
That is a far cry from Hemlock’s plans to more than triple capacity by 2010 to 36,000 tonnes as it bets that demand for clean energy amid rising oil prices will push up silicon demand for solar cells.