Wacker has started up a new €100 million silicon-metal plant at its production site in Holla, Norway.

The Munich, Germany-based group said the facility’s new furnace is one of the largest of its kind worldwide and increases the site’s total capacity by more than 40%. The plant’s state-of-the-art design is claimed to make it particularly efficient, requiring little maintenance.

Used to produce silicones and hyperpure polysilicon, silicon metal is one of Wacker’s most important raw materials. Production in Holla now covers about a third of the captive demand from the chemical producer’s German sites.

The expanded silicon-metal capacity is a key strategic step in the group’s sourcing of raw materials, said Rudolf Staudigl, CEO of parent company Wacker Chemie.

Increases in captive production makes the business more independent of raw material price fluctuations and enhances its supply security, both during times of peak demand and shortages that could stem from mounting trade barriers worldwide, the CEO added.

Wacker acquired the Holla site, near Trondheim, which produces for the German parent’s captive use, in 2010. Some 200 people are employed there.