Citing growing demand from its solar photovoltaic (PV) industry customers, Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) has stopped the short-time work schedule at its polysilicon production facility in Burghausen, Germany.

Wacker had introduced short-time hours for 700 employees at the site in October 2012. The company is ramping up its current production, which had been reduced to two-thirds of full capacity.

"We sold more polysilicon than expected in January," explains Wacker Polysilicon President Ewald Schindlbeck. "Our order intake has increased so much over the last few weeks that plant-utilization levels are currently insufficient to produce the quantities ordered."

Shifting market conditions

Wacker credits its flexible technology with its ability to align output to shifts in market demand rapidly. The announcement comes four days after Wacker Chemie reported a fall in fourth quarter 2012 revenues and EBITDA due to falling polysilicon prices driven by oversupply.

2013-02-12 | Courtesy: Wacker Chemie | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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