Tags: Alternative Energy, China, Chinese Investments, Solar Energy

Fluor to Build Polysilicon Plant in China

By , Money Morning •

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From Staff Reports

Site preparation has begun for a Xinyu City, China, polysilicon production plant that will be located adjacent to LDK Solar Co. Ltd.'s (LDK) existing solar wafer manufacturing facilities.

Fluor Corp (FLR), the U.S.-based engineering-and-construction company, said it landed a contract worth more than $1 billion to provide engineering, design and other services for the LDK facility. Fluor said it booked front-end engineering and design work in the third quarter, while the engineering, procurement and construction-management services would be booked in 2008.

LDK, which makes multicrystalline solar wafers used in solar panels, has said it plans to reach polysilicon production capacity of 6,000 metric tons by the end of 2008 and 15,000 tons by the end of 2009.

Tight supplies of polysilicon have crimped expansion in the fast-growing solar market, and many companies have moved to develop their own supplies of the key solar cell component.

Of the six China-based solar-energy companies that went public this year, three are among the best-performing IPOs through the first nine months of this year. [For more information on these IPOs through the first three quarters of the year, please click here and check out our related story on IPO deals through the first nine months of this year].

The includes the No. 1 performer, JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd (JASO), the solar-cell maker whose shares have more than quadrupled in value since it went public on Feb. 6 at $15 a share. LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (LDK) and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (YGE) - which went public a week apart in early June - ranked third and fourth, respectively.

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