German solar cell firm suffers from silicon shortages

German solar wafer maker Schott AG said its America based plant is suffering from shortages of polysilicon. The polysilicon is required to maintain current production levels. According to EETimes reports the CEO of Schott, Udo Ungeheuer did not rule out production cuts or even selling the U.S. plant as a result from the polysilicon bottleneck. "We are requested by U.S. law to inform our staff if such a possibility occurs, even if it is just a remote option," the spokesman from Schott said. "It is not predictable if we really will encounter such a situation", he added. "The shortage affects the market for solar polysilicon," the spokesman said. "The manufacturers for these materials have waited [to see] if the solar trend will be a lasting phenomenon before they decided to crank up their production. Now they are convinced that this is a long-term market opportunity, and hence they have started investing in new production facilities", he added.