Wacker weighs closing Tennessee polysilicon plant after Trump tariffs, Reuters reports
A German chemicals company is considering closing the American plant that Washington’s new polysilicon tariffs were supposed to protect.
Wacker Chemie has lost its last two customers for the material since the measures were announced and is weighing the future of a factory in Charleston, Tennessee, that employs about 600 people, Reuters reported in an exclusive.
Polysilicon is the raw material for both solar panels and semiconductors. Only two companies still make it in the United States, Wacker and Hemlock Semiconductor, after domestic production fell from about half of global output in 2005 to under 2% by 2024.
The White House proclamation of 6 August was written to reverse that. It set a 15% duty on most imported polysilicon and derivatives along with price floors of $21 a kilogram for polysilicon and $100 for ingots and wafers, taking effect in December.
The problem is where the measures land. They apply...
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