SunEdison announced that they would close its shuttered polysilicon manufacturing facility in Merano, Italy immediately. This is a conclusion from a process of global restructuring plan they had announced in 2011.
The Merano polysilicon facility was shuttered in December 2011 as part of a restructuring plan. To build a better business with current and expected market conditions and improve overall cost competitiveness, SunEdison started the plan and has explored several options to enhance the cost effectiveness; the Merano polysilicon facility was one of the targets. The company finally admitted that the cost reductions were not enough to sustain the economic viability of the plant in the current market environment so decided to close the Merano polysilicon plant, which will impact nearly 200 employees.
Meanwhile, the associated electronic grade TCS (trichlorosilane) operation would be closed over the next year. Owing to the indefinite closure of the polysilicon manufacturing facility and TCS operation, the firm expects about $37 million of fixed asset impairments for the year 2013. Besides, SunEdison would begin to consolidate its semiconductor crystal operations, which would include the transitioning of small diameter crystal activities in its St. Peters, Missouri facility to its other crystal facilities in Korea, Taiwan and Italy. The crystal manufacturing consolidation would be implemented over the next 12 months.