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Strategies & Market Trends : Longer-Term Market Trends -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AllansAlias who wrote (64)	3/27/2008 2:34:49 PM
From: Archie Meeties	Respond to of 3209

WFR profits have come from high margins in their silicon purification and manufacturing. The technology and the foundries that can do this are expensive and difficult to duplicate. A sustained share price downturn suggests the markets attempt to discount a long awaited increase in silicon supply from non wfr foundries. The predictions were for late 2008 when new supply would come, but until recently silicon prices have been setting new highs = injuring the margins of traditional solar cell makers. So the headwind the market may try to discount is of increasing competition, shrinking margins. The cost of the crystalline silicon in pv cells represents 45% of their total cost. Even a small increase in supply and decrease in price would expand their margins significantly.