JAPAN'S SUMCO TO ACCELERATE SOLAR CELL WAFER PRODUCTION

Sumco Corp. (TSE:3436), the world's second-largest silicon wafer producer, is expanding production of wafers for solar cells.

The company plans to increase output without undertaking any new capital spending. To that end, subsidiary Sumco Solar Corp. will begin full-scale mass production at a large furnace and increase production speed. To reduce wafer breaking and cracking and thus boost yields, the process of cutting ingots into pieces 150mm square and less than 200 microns thick will be improved.

Production volume is projected to rise 5 per cent to 110 megawatts in the year ending January 2009. By 2015, Sumco aims to raise annual production volume to 1 gigawatt.

The world market for solar cells grew about 40 per cent on the year in 2006 to around 2.5 gigawatts and is thought to have reached around 3.7 gigawatts in 2007. Solar cells are rapidly becoming popular in Europe, but a shortage of polycrystalline silicon has prevented wafer production from rising, causing a bottleneck hindering increased solar cell output.

Solar cell types that use little silicon are attracting attention, but demand is expected to continue growing for high-efficiency wafer-type cells as well.

(Nikkei)