Timminco to recall laid-off workers at Becancour silicon plant

By B.H. Mckenna, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Silicon processor Timminco Ltd. (TSX: TIM.TO) plans to recall about a dozen of its remaining laid-off workers at its plant in Becancour, Que., as it restarts the third of three electric arc furnaces, the company said Friday.

Chief financial officer Robert Dietrich said the recall amounts to some 10 or 15 workers among 250 on site at Becancour.

"It terms of recalling of workers its a relatively small number but its good. It gets the whole complement back to work," Dietrich said.

He explained that the recall was small because all support, maintenance and supervisory staff were needed to run even two of the furnaces.

And, by starting up the third one, the company will increase production capacity by about a third, improving economies at the plant.

The Toronto-based company purifies silicon metal for use in the chemical and aluminum industries among others. It also produces silicon for use in solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity.

Dietrich said that while demand for solar-grade silicon remains depressed, Timminco is experiencing a return in orders from traditional customers for silicon metal.

Demand for solar grade silicon dropped off during the severe slowdown that began to seriously affect the global economy about a year ago.

Timminco announced Friday that it shipped 103 tonnes of solar grade silicon in the quarter, mostly to an affiliated company, at an average of $39 per kilogram.

That was about one-third of the 300 tonnes of solar grade silicon shipped in the third quarter of 2008 and one-quarter of the volume shipped in the final three months of 2008, when solar grade silicon fetched $65 per kilogram.

It previously announced that its controlling shareholder, Advanced Metallurgical Group NV, had bought 80 tonnes of solar grade silicon - about four-fifths of the third-quarter sales - for about $3.1 million.

"Our shipments in the quarter reflect the continuing difficult market conditions in the solar industry," stated John Fenger, president and chief operating officer of Timminco, said in a statement.

"In this challenging environment, we have focused our efforts on meeting current market specifications for quality that would permit our customers to manufacture solar cells made from our solar grade silicon that are indistinguishable from cells made with polysilicon, through advancing our knowledge of ingotting and purification processes."

Dietrich said Timminco hopes to grow its solar business, which accounted for about $65 million of total sales of $189 million in 2008. However, sales of solar silicon are expected to represent a much small percentage this year.