WACKER POLYSILICON

Sales at WACKER POLYSILICON decreased in 2018. At €823.5 million (2017: €1.12 billion), sales were 26.7 percent lower than the year before. The main reasons were substantially reduced volumes and lower average prices for polysilicon. At the end of May 2018, China announced that it would curb solar feed-in tariffs and cap the amount of new photovoltaic installations. That slowed demand for solar modules in China and put pressure on the entire value chain for solar products. WACKER POLYSILICON used this market situation for inventory rebuilding so as to ensure faster deliveries to its customers. In the reporting year, Asia was again the key sales region for our products.

EBITDA at WACKER POLYSILICON amounted to €72.4 million, after €290.4 million in 2017. That was a decrease of 75.1 percent, which was chiefly due to considerably lower average prices and to lower volumes. Additionally, earnings were dampened by the business-interruption costs and subsequent ramp-up costs at the Charleston, Tennessee site. The EBITDA margin was 8.8 percent (2017: 25.8 percent). Earnings in 2018 did not include any insurance compensation for the business interruption loss in Charleston.

WACKER POLYSILICON’s capital expenditures were higher year over year. Investment spending rose 8.0 percent to €62.2 million (2017: €57.6 million). The number of employees rose to 2,549 (Dec. 31, 2017: 2,538).