Quebec, Canada: Timminco's wholly-owned subsidiary, Becancour Silicon Inc. ("BSI"), has entered into an agreement to supply solar grade silicon to Q-Cells AG. Q-Cells is the world's largest manufacturer of solar cells.
Under the terms of the agreement, BSI will supply Q-Cells with contractually fixed supplies of 410 metric tons (mt) in 2008 and 3,000 mt in 2009 at fixed prices. The deliveries start immediately. Until the end of July 2008 the partners will negotiate a further contract on the delivery of up to 6,000 mt per year in the years 2010 to 2013. The price for these possible further supplies will be negotiated contingent upon market conditions.
With this contract Q-Cells will become BSI's largest customer for solar grade silicon in 2009. This agreement represents BSI's fifth long-term commercial contract for the sale of high purity silicon.
In the event that Q-Cells and BSI agree to extend the contract to 6,000 mt per year for the period 2010 to 2013, this contract would raise the committed deliveries of BSI's solar grade silicon business to 12,000 mt per year beginning in 2010. On February 22, 2008 Timminco announced the expansion of BSI's solar grade silicon capacity to 14,400 mt per year, with the incremental capacity fully on stream by the end of the second quarter of 2009.
"BSI has developed a proprietary process which enables it to produce solar grade silicon by purifying metallurgical silicon. Q-Cells has tested unblended material from BSI extensively and has obtained very good results in cell production", said Mr. Anton Milner, CEO of Q-Cells. "This contract represents a giant step for our solar grade silicon business. Q-Cells is a leader in the photovoltaic industry and their endorsement of our material through this supply agreement is further evidence of the paradigm shift we are creating in the solar grade silicon market." said Mr. Rene Boisvert, President and CEO of BSI.
|
