Old polysilicon companies lay off 1500 people!

local time, German chemical giant Wacker Chemical announced that due to the current severe business situation, the company launched a project called "PACE" in October to significantly reduce production and management costs.

in the first quarter of 2026." Completed by the end of 2027.

The layoff announcement follows news in early November that the company would lay off thousands of employees. In response, a spokesman for the company said at the time that the figure could not be confirmed at present, but understood the concerns of employees. "Our goal is to reduce costs to a competitive level through cost savings," said Dr. Hoda

, WACKER's president and CEO. This will put WACKER back on the path to success.

At the same time, he stressed the importance of establishing a competitive policy environment: "Especially in Germany, high energy prices and cumbersome administrative obstacles are still the main obstacles to the successful development of the chemical industry." According to the

data, Wacker Chemistry was founded in 1914 and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in April 2006. In 1955, the company produced the first silicon rods. By 1961, several ultra-pure silicon production lines were put into operation. In 1965, WACKER Chemical entered the U.S. market and produced ultra-pure silicon rods and wafers by Czochralski method. In 2004, the company's granular polysilicon pilot plant was completed.

According to Wacker Chemical's official website, the company has six production bases in Germany, including two polysilicon production bases, Burghausen and N Nünchritz. Among them, Burghausen is WACKER's largest integrated production base and one of the core bases of the company's polysilicon business; N Nünchritz is the company's second largest multi-functional production base and a key base for polysilicon production.

Furthermore, The pressure on Wacker Chemical's performance in the third quarter of this year is also one of the reasons for its layoffs.

According to the third quarterly report of Wacker this year, the company achieved sales of 1.34 billion euros in the third quarter, down 6% year-on-year and 5% year-on-year, with a net profit loss of 82 million euros; Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was 1.

As for the decline in EBITDA, Wacker explained that it was mainly due to lower prices and lower capacity utilization.

Among them, the third quarter sales of the company's polysilicon business were 1.

In the third quarter of this year, the EBITDA of Wacker Chemical's polysilicon business was 0.18 billion euros . EBITDA margin was 8.9%, compared with 14% in the same period last year and 15.1% in the second quarter of this year.

In July, Wacker Chemical adjusted its forecast for 2025, with sales falling from 6.1-6.4 billion euros to 5.5-5.9 billion euros and full-year EBITDA falling from 700-900 million euros to 500-700 million euros.

As for the main reasons for the downward revision of the earnings forecast, Dr. Hoda said: On the one hand, the constant uncertainty of the macroeconomic and geopolitical order has led to weak demand from its customers; on the other hand, the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar has developed adversely since the beginning of the second quarter; "In addition, Wacker has predicted that the uncertainty of the U.S. market trade policy on solar polysilicon will be eliminated within the year, and the demand for polysilicon business will recover.". However, this development has not been realized so far.