Sumitomo Titanium Corporation Raises Retail Price of Polysilicon Just Over 30%

Sumitomo Titanium Corporation will raise just over 30% the retail price of polysilicon for the shipping in February as the new purchase contract; the firm will perform the price hike for 2 consecutive years as the world’s silicon supply does not exceed the demand because there are much tighter situations of the supply-demand due to the strong demand for photovoltaic solar cells as well as semiconductors. In Sumitomo’s polysilicon business, the selling price had declined because of long-term semiconductor recession. But Sumitomo performed the price revision by over 10% from the shipping of last February due to tightness of the supply and demand by increase of the demand for photovoltaic solar cells. Most of the firm’s silicon shipments are for semiconductors. Furthermore, photovoltaic solar cell demand is expected as energy for prevention of global warming. Its demand is increasing dramatically mainly in Europe under escalating price of crude oil.