Plasticman

Investing in a Resource-Constrained World (Part II)

I forgot to include a piece from the earnings release. They exceeded sales forcasts in the fourth quarter, so they obviously didn't suffer from a raw materials shortage.

"Net sales in the fourth quarter rose to $201 million from $53 million a year earlier. Analysts had been looking for about $180.2 million."

Investing in a Resource-Constrained World (Part II)

Here are some bits and comments from First Solar from Reuters.

NEW YORK, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Thin-film solar maker First Solar (FSLR) expects its new plant in Malaysia to cut production costs by about 20 cents per watt when it comes on line later this year.

"As we're moving to Malaysia, I think our models imply a 20 cent cost-per-watt reduction," Jens Meyerhoff, First Solar chief financial officer, told a Piper Jaffray investment conference.

First Solar has said its production costs in the fourth quarter fell to $1.12 per watt, down from $1.29 at the beginning of 2007.

The company's reliance on cadmium telluride rather than silicon for its solar cells has helped protect it from rising costs that have hurt other solar equipment makers.

Meyerhoff dismissed concerns by some analysts who have questioned whether the world's supplies of tellurium, one of the planet's rarest elements, would be ample enough to feed First Solar's new production.

"Tellurium availability has not impacted us. As we're building out this capacity, we're assessing supply chain readiness ... we feel comfortable with the supply," he said. (Reporting by Matt Daily, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Maureen Bavdek)

Either they are lying or they have another source besides 5N Plus. Maybe 5n's price was too high.