More Solar Industry Trouble as MEMC Lays Off 1,300

The hits just keep on coming for the solar power industry:

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. will undertake a major restructuring that includes closing plants, laying off more than 1,300 workers, or about a fifth of its work force, and taking a charge of about $700 million in the current quarter.

The move is an effort to reduce production capacity and quickly lower operating costs in light of weak demand for semiconductors and the bottom dropping out of the solar market due to oversupply.

You would think that being forced to fire a fifth of your employees might make a corporate manager a bit pessimistic in their outlook. But of course, you would be wrong:

"We believe these actions strengthen MEMC in the near term and position us for more profitable growth in our core businesses – semiconductor wafers and solar energy systems," said Ahmad Chatila, MEMC's chief executive. "Changed market conditions require that we improve productivity across all segments and in solar move to a more balanced manufacturing model aligned with our downstream business."

That doesn't even make good nonsense. See why CEOs are paid 400 times what the average worker makes? The rest of us just don't have the imagination to come up with such golden bullshit, or the gonads to say it in public.