REC Silicon Reports $28.1 Million Revenues In Q1/2021

REC Silicon Confident Of Restarting Moses Lake Production Facility In 2023 Expecting Probable Demand From Solar PV & Silicon Anode Market

REC Silicon Reports $28.1 Million Revenues In Q1/2021

Semiconductor materials business segment led revenue and EBITDA growth for REC Silicon in Q1/2020, while solar materials business continued to remain low. (Source: REC Silicon ASA)

  • REC Silicon reported $28.1 million revenues in Q1/2021, with solar materials business contributing only $0.1 million
  • Management said the company continues to make efforts to create an ultra-low carbon footprint PV value chain in collaboration with other solar companies and the use government
  • It is hopeful of restarting Moses Lake fab in 2023 expecting probable demand from both solar PV and silicon anode market

Expecting ‘probable demand’ from both the solar PV and silicon anode market, Norwegian polysilicon producer REC Silicon ASA is confident that its Moses Lake facility in the US will be restarted in 2023. Management plans to make the decision before 2021 comes to an end. The company is in a partnership with silicon-carbon composite materials company Group14 Technologies to develop a full-scale, co-located commercial production facility at its Moses Lake location (see REC Silicon & Violet Energy Announce Partnership).

One big level for the company to restart its Moses Lake fab was its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Violet Power that has plans to develop local 5 GW annual PV manufacturing capacity, from the latter’s Moses Lake location, however in April 2021, REC Silicon called it off. Back then it said it wanted to collaborate commercially with ‘established’ and ‘proven’ solar supply chain partners (see REC Silicon & Violet Partnership Terminated).

“The PV polysilicon market has strengthened over the last months, but unfortunately, REC Silicon is not able to supply this market due to the trade dispute with China. However, plans to develop an ‘ultra-low-carbon footprint’ PV value chain continue in collaboration with other solar companies and the US Government,” shared CEO Tore Torvund. “REC Silicon is also in negotiations with several “Silicon Anode” companies concerning silane supply contracts from our Moses Lake facility. REC Silicon is confident that the Moses Lake facility will be restarted in 2023 with probable demand from both the PV and the Silicon Anode market.”

Nonetheless, its Chinese joint venture at Yulin in which it holds 15% stake, produced close to 2,746 MT of FBR granular polysilicon and 17 MT of Simens polysilicon, and plans to increase production of high purity granular polysilicon using high purity liners as they are delivered, it explained.

That said, the company shared it has not made the final equity settlement of $4.7 million which was due in December 2020.

Financials

In Q1/2020, REC Silicon reported $28.1 million revenues and $4.0 million EBITDA, compared to $24.7 million and $1.0 million respectively in Q1/2020 (see REC Silicon Polysilicon Inventory Increased In Q1/2020). To this, solar materials segment contributed $0.1 million representing small sales volumes from remaining granular polysilicon inventories.

All the polysilicon during the reporting quarter was produced by the company at its Butte, Montana located semiconductor materials facility since the Moses Lake fab is shut. REC Silicon produced 293 MT polysilicon and sold 227 MT.

For solar grade polysilicon, it experienced an increase of 9.2% in average prices compared to previous quarter.

About The Author

Anu Bhambhani

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR Anu is our solar news whirlwind. At TaiyangNews, she covers everything that is of importance in the world of solar power. In the past 9 years that she has been associated with TaiyangNews, she has covered over thousands of stories, and analysis pieces on markets, technology, financials, and more on a daily basis. She also hosts TaiyangNews Conferences and Webinars. Prior to joining TaiyangNews, Anu reported on sustainability, management, and education for leading print dailies in India. [email protected]

Subscribe To Newsletter


Latest Videos

Loading...