MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. will slash 1,300 jobs — almost 20 percent of its workforce — and cut production as it copes with plunging prices for polysilicon, the key raw material in solar wafers and semiconductors.
The O’Fallon, Mo.-based company will eliminate 250 U.S. jobs by next spring, including 70 of 830 positions at the company’s corporate headquarters in O’Fallon, spokesman Bill Michalek said. MEMC will idle a polysilicon plant in Merano, Italy, and may close it permanently. It will reduce capacity at a plant in Portland that it acquired last year; and limit the ramp up of its newest silicon wafer plant in Kuching, Malaysia.
Officials said the actions were necessary to align the scope of operations with fast-changing markets that have been increasingly defined by a flood of Chinese-made polysilicon and a slowdown in solar and semiconductor demand.
“It is clear we must adjust our business model,” Ahmad Chatila, MEMC’s chief executive, said on a conference call with analysts and investors. “We believe these actions will strengthen MEMC in the near term and position us for more profitable growth in our core businesses.”
MEMC expects the restructuring to reduce annual operating expenses by more than 15 percent and boost cash flow by $200 million a year.
Theodore O’Neill, a New York-based alternative energy analyst at Wunderlich Securities, said the actions were necessary. But he’s not convinced it will insulate the company from the polysilicon prices that continue to spiral downward.
“The company is doing what I think they have to do,” he said. “My concern is they’re chasing a rabbit down a hole.” On Thursday, O’Neill cut his rating on MEMC shares to “sell” from “buy” and lowered his price target on the stock to $3 from $11.
The polysilicon boom has gone bust in only a few years as manufacturers around the globe simultaneously raced to add production capacity. The result: Prices that topped $400 a kilogram in 2008 have fallen below $40. They have plunged 45 percent just this year.
Meanwhile, the solar energy market in Europe has suffered as subsidies have begun to dry up. And demand for semiconductors has waned, too. Unlike in past years when consumers snapped up LED televisions and iPads, “we don’t have any hot consumer electronic that’s pulling massive amounts of polysilicon through the sales channel,” O’Neill said.
MEMC isn’t alone among polysilicon producers. “Other vendors in the solar supply chain will be forced to take similar action” in 2012, an analyst at Gilford Securities predicted in a research note on Thursday.
Last month, the International Trade Commission agreed to investigate a complaint by seven solar manufacturers that Chinese competitors were dumping products to injure competitors by driving down prices. MEMC was not among them, and is part of a coalition that believes the case could spark a trade dispute and raise prices for the entire industry.
Low-priced Chinese solar products were also cited by California-based Solyndra Inc. in its September bankruptcy. The case has been scrutinized by Republicans in Congress because the company received a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee from the Obama administration.
But just as falling prices have hurt solar wafer producers, they have benefited consumers and generated business for U.S. solar installers such as Clayton-based Microgrid Energy, which has seen its volume of solar work triple from last year.
“Probably once a month we see prices come down,” said Marc Lopata, Microgrid’s president.
Lopata said costs for installed solar energy systems have fallen by about 25 percent from a year ago to $6 a watt or less, depending on the size. And with rebates and tax incentives, consumers are getting about 60 percent back.
MEMC said it will combine its struggling solar materials unit, where 45 percent of jobs are being eliminated, with its SunEdison solar development unit under a single management team at the end of the month to squeeze out efficiencies. In some instances, SunEdison will buy solar wafers from other manufacturers rather than use those made in-house.
The company said it will take charges totaling as much as $1.38 billion in the fourth quarter. More than half of the amount is related to the restructuring plan announced Thursday, with the rest a product of likely goodwill impairments and deteriorating business conditions.
Weak solar and semiconductor markets also prompted MEMC to lower its fourth-quarter earnings forecast by 5 cents to 10 cents a share, excluding the charges. The company said revenue could be $239 million less than expected as some of its SunEdsion sales in Europe could get pushed back to 2012.
Shares of MEMC, which had lost nearly two thirds of their value over the past year, fell sharply in early trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange but closed down just a penny at $4.20.
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