Update on silicon shortages [RE-wrenches]

Peter Duchon info at asappower.com
Tue Jul 26 09:27:41 PDT 2005


Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Need Emergency Cash? Get Up To $500 Now! 
No Credit Checks, Easy & Fast Approval 
Cash in you account Overnight!
http://click.topica.com/caadHk3bz8Qcsbz9JC9a/911PaydayAdvance
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Joel, Wrenches,
One of our big industrial strength investors was at the SemiCon the prior
week, as noted in the article below.  While that gentleman's group is
putting in mucho dinero, among other industry "players", there's still a way
to join the 60+ shareholders, whom have invested from $1000 to $60,000
amounts.  Regular RE-Wrench list readers will recall my long-winded
dissertation on the shortages experienced by the PV industry in late January
of this year.  In that message I had proposed an offering of sorts, a "way
out" of the situation.  Look at me as holding a big solar powered light at
the end of a tunnel that was dug through a mountain of pure silica with my
own and many others' bare hands.  It's that easy to "dig."  We will be
changing the world of PV and the energy industry at large by early 2007.
It's relatively cheap AND easy, as far as world-changing goes.  We just have
to do it.  It's like washing the dishes, or seperating the trash for the
recycling bins...the toughest part is thinking about it.  So I am doing my
part.  I was made CEO and Chairman of the group responsible in March of this
year.  If anyone is even slightly interested in what I talked about back in
January, do yourself a favor, consider yourself a capitalist for good, and
please contact me off-list via email.

Peter Duchon
info at asappower.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Davidson [mailto:joeldavidson at earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 7:25 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Update on silicon shortages [RE-wrenches]


Allan is right about it being serious. Polysilicon production is a capital
and energy intensive commodity industry like smelting steel only
significantly higher purity is required. Capitalists don't want to buy into
expensive low-profit commodity businesses so prices will keep climbing until
it hits the fabricators' "build yer own factory" price point. A little
downstream, semiconductor manufacturers like Intel build poly-to-wafer fabs
at over $1 billion a pop as needed and get all the raw poly they can buy. Of
course, they get a lot more for their processed wafers than PV companies.
Changing the world is not cheap or easy.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Allan Sindelar" <allan at positiveenergysolar.com>
To: "New wrenches posting" <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 3:50 PM
Subject: Fw: Update on silicon shortages [RE-wrenches]


Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Oreo's
Take our Nationwide Oreo Survey.
Receive a Free* Restaurant Gift card of your choice or a one year
supply of Oreo's. Hurry, limited time only!
http://click.topica.com/caadJ9dbz8Qcsbc0WJAa/CookieSurvey
-------------------------------------------------------------------


MessageFolks, it's real and it's serious.
Allan at Positive Energy
SEMATECH Council Seeking Ways to Forestall Looming Polysilicon Shortage
Wednesday July 20, 3:00 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 20, 2005 -- Responding to rapidly
rising demand for polysilicon from the booming photovoltaic market, the
SEMATECH-led Critical Materials Council (CMC) will investigate strategies to
help improve the short-term supply of polysilicon for the semiconductor
industry.



The CMC's response grew out of a meeting last week at SEMICON West, in which
polysilicon producers described operating at maximum capacity, and predicted
shortfalls of semiconductor-quality polysilicon starting this year and
extending into 2008. The CMC meeting was sponsored by SEMATECH and SEMI.

"Basically, everyone is running everything they have" to keep up with
silicon demand, said Dave Keck, vice president of Advanced Silicon
Materials, LLC. While the chip industry currently consumes about two-thirds
of manufactured silicon, photovolotaics takes one-third and its appetite is
growing about 30 percent a year.

"There is not enough polysilicon to support the growth of the photovoltaic
industry after 2008," much less the increased needs of the semiconductor
industry as it converts to 300 mm wafers, Keck said. He and other meeting
participants predicted a polysilicon shortage of 4,000 metric tons this
year, increasing to 6,000, 12,000 and 20,000 metric tons over the three
years following.

Gary Homan, marketing vice president at Hemlock Semiconductor Corp., said
the silicon industry's options for dealing with the oncoming crunch include
incremental expansion of existing facilities; building new plants;
identifying new materials for customer use; and forming consortia to tackle
the issue on a unified basis.

"There is a lot of activity going on in the industry to try to address the
polysilicon shortage, but there's still a lot of work ahead," Homan said.
"We are probably underestimating the polysilicon demand" from 300 mm wafer
conversion, he added, in which case "there are people who will not get
supplied [with polysilicon] in the future." He also indicated during
subsequent meeting discussions that the supply chain that supports
polysilicon production is also facing capacity challenges.

The world's ravenous demand for silicon was quantified by Dan Tracy, Senior
Director Industry Research & Statistics at SEMI, who estimated that
producers will turn out 26,000 metric tons of polysilicon this year and
29,000 metric tons in 2006. "There is strong demand out there for
polysilicon" just from the semiconductor industry, which could have forty
300 mm fabs in production around the world by 2006, he said.

Neil Gayle, a SEMATECH manager and CMC coordinator, said it's crucial for
SEMATECH member companies -- which represent about half the world's
semiconductor production -- to have access to remedies for a polysilicon
shortage that some are already calling inevitable. He said the CMC, which
provides a forum for SEMATECH members to assess the semiconductor supply
chain and help assure a robust supplier base, is a natural vehicle for
seeking such solutions.

"We'll investigate the possibilities for expanding the supply of
polysilicon, and work with suppliers and manufacturers to try to develop a
coordinated response," Gayle said. "Even if a polysilicon shortage is
unavoidable, we may be able to find ways to soften the impact on our member
companies and the industry."

SEMATECH is the world's catalyst for accelerating the commercialization of
technology innovations into manufacturing solutions. By setting global
direction, creating opportunities for flexible collaboration, and conducting
strategic R&D, SEMATECH delivers significant leverage to our semiconductor
and emerging technology partners. In short, we are accelerating the next
technology revolution. For more information, please visit the SEMATECH
website at www.sematech.org. AMRC, Advanced Materials Research Center, ATDF,
the ATDF logo, ISMI and International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative are
servicemarks of SEMATECH, Inc.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Get a Free Sirius Satellite Package, don't pass on this!
http://click.topica.com/caadHlCbz8Qcsbc0WJAf/ProductTestPanel
-------------------------------------------------------------------

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read

List rules & etiquette: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquette.php

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com



--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.9.4/57 - Release Date: 07/22/2005

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.9.4/57 - Release Date: 07/22/2005

Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Oreo's
Take our Nationwide Oreo Survey.
Receive a Free* Restaurant Gift card of your choice or a one year 
supply of Oreo's. Hurry, limited time only! 
http://click.topica.com/caadJ9dbz8Qcsbz9JC9f/CookieSurvey
-------------------------------------------------------------------

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read

List rules & etiquette: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquette.php

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit:
http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER
--^----------------------------------------------------------------






More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list