Thursday, January 22, 2009

MEMC: Will Customers Walk From Take-Or-Pay Deals? (WFR)

It's not just WFR. There are rumbles coming out of Europe that customers are close to the "So sue me" point on deals negotiated last year with module manufacturers.
From Tech Trader Daily:

Is MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) playing chicken with its solar customers?

Kaufman Bros. analyst Theodore O’Neill raised that question in a research note this morning. He says that sources in the channel suggest that the company is trying to force solar customers Tainergy and Yingli Green Energy (YGE) to make good on take-or-pay polysilicon contracts despite a large drop in spot prices and an abundance of wafers in the scrap market. O’Neill thinks such a move would be unwise.

“In our experience, take-or-pay contracts never work if the economics of the contracts compare unfavorably to spot prices,”>>>MORE