Norway's Renewable Energy Corp. up poly-silicon production

OSLO: Norway's Renewable Energy Corp. up its 2011 poly-silicon production goal on Wednesday and expected selling prices for solar energy equipment to fall by about 5 percent during the first quarter.

A week ago, Norway's REC said its fourth quarter results would beat market forecast and painted an upbeat picture for 2011 despite overproduction fears and waning solar subsidies, lifting its shares by 13 percent.

REC said it would produce 17,000 metric tonnes of poly-silicon in 2011, up from its previous guidance of 16,000 tonnes but said first quarter production would be lower than in the fourth quarter of 2010 due to maintenance operations.

REC cited "industry analyst estimates" showing a 10-30 percent rise in solar energy demand in 2011 compared to 2010.

"On the supply side, poly-silicon is still expected to represent the capacity `bottleneck' for the industry in 2011," REC said, adding that analysts were expecting 30-40 percent supply growth in 2011.