Dow Corning to Invest More Than $4 Billion in Next Five Years

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The world's largest organic silicon manufacturer, Dow Corning Corporation (Midland, Michigan), a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (Midland) and Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) (Corning, New York), will invest more than $4 billion in the next five years. Industries to receive the investment are said to include solar energy, infrastructure, cosmetics and others. Sources from the senior management level of Dow Corning disclosed that most of the investment will come to the photovoltaic industry and will be focused on the Chinese market.

Thanks to the Chinese government's efforts to promote the development of renewable energy, China has become the world's largest photovoltaic battery manufacturer. The Chinese government's favorable policies toward the photovoltaic industry also make the world's photovoltaic industry players deem China a proper investment destination.

Industry analysts believe that if the country continues to subsidize photovoltaic industry as it did this year, China's domestic demand for relevant products will expand further. At present, 98% of photovoltaic batteries manufactured in China are intended for export--a lucrative business, as the worldwide value of the solar energy market has expanded from $8 billion two years ago to $19 billion today.

Dow Corning now has two products in the solar energy industry: polycrystalline silicon, the raw material for making crystal silicon solar battery, and silicon tetrahydride, the major material used to produce pellicle solar batteries. At present, all of Dow Corning's production facilities for these two products are situated in the U.S., and the company has not established production plants in China.

However, a senior manager with Dow Corning said that the company was planning to build a silicon tetrahydride production facility in China and that Jiangsu province in southern China had the best chance of hosting this plant.

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