[Infostock Daily= reporter Song Jeong-hoon] OCI has decided to stop the solar polysilicon business produced by the Korean military plant. OCI is the largest polysilicon maker in Korea and the third largest producer in the world.
OCI announced on February 11 that it will stop the production of solar polysilicon at the Gunsan plant on February 20. OCI has been producing 52,000 tons of polysilicon per year in three lines of Gunsan plant
“Some production lines will produce polysilicon for semiconductors and focus on this business,” OCI said. “The size of the facility will be reduced due to the deterioration of the business environment.”
The production of polysilicon for semiconductors will begin on May 20.
OCI announced its suspension due to profitability deterioration.
High purity polysilicon prices were $ 17 per kg in 2018, but fell to $ 9 last year and fell to $ 7 this year.
The OCI’s polysilicon break-even point is around $13 per kilogram, which means that the company has been selling its products since last year, while losing money.
The most important electricity rates in polysilicon manufacturing were also affected; China’s electricity rates were only one-third of Korea’s, making it impossible to keep up with Chinese products and price competitiveness.
OCI plans to cut costs by more than 25% by taking over the production of polysilicon for solar power at the Malaysian factory instead of stopping operation of the Korean plant. OCI has decided to increase its annual production capacity at the Malaysian plant from 13,800 tons to 27,000 tons.
OCI said, "We plan to focus on efficiency and profitability improvement through dualization of polysilicon production." "We expect operating profit to be difficult this year due to cost due to business restructuring."
Reporter Song Jeong-hoon boxr@infostock.co.kr
