Timminco shares soar in heavy trading

By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Timminco Ltd. shares (TSX: TIM.TO) soared in heavy trading Monday in a second day of big advances since the specialty metals producer announced last week a ramp up of production at its silicon operation in Becancour, Que.

Timminco's stock, which had plunged over the past year in the wake of the global economic slowdown, traded as high as $3.08 on Monday before giving up some gains to trade at $2.59, up 86 cents or nearly 50 per cent.

Trading volume for Timminco's stock was the heaviest in at least five years, with more than 20 million traded by mid-afternoon Monday.

The shares have about doubled in value since Thursday, when they closed at $1.27 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The stock is still well below its 52-week high of $10.47, set nearly a year ago, and its all-time high of $35.69 set in May 2008 when interest in its silicon processing technology was at a peak.

Timminco's most recent rise started on Friday, after the company announced its plans to restart the third of three electric arc furnaces at a plant in western Quebec that produce silicon metal used in the aluminum and chemical industries.

However that announcement on its own may have not been the cause of the sharp runup in Timminco shares on Monday.

A Timminco spokesman said last week that demand and prices for solar panel-grade silicon - which had previously been a major reason for investor interest in the company - remains depressed.

Earlier Friday, Timminco announced it had 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.