\n The United States is backing a Moroccan company planning to produce a highly purified form of silicon used in semiconductors and solar panels, as Washington ramps up efforts to reduce dependence on China for critical technology materials.\n <\/p>\n
\n Sondiale SA aims to build an $870 million facility in southern Morocco to manufacture polysilicon, and has secured $4.75 million in pre-investment development funding from the US International Development Finance Corp. (DFC), according to the agency.\n <\/p>\n
\n A US contractor will lead development of the plant, which is expected to supply high-purity polysilicon to the US and allied markets, Bloomberg reported.\n <\/p>\n
Rivalling China\u2019s dominance<\/p>\n
\n The support comes as the US seeks alternatives to China, which currently produces more than 90% of the world\u2019s polysilicon. Beijing has tightened controls over resources such as rare earths amid escalating trade tensions, underscoring its dominance of key supply chains.\n <\/p>\n
\n The company will target customers in the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. The firm is seeking to raise about $800 million in equity and debt from local and foreign investors, with as much as $550 million potentially coming from the DFC.\n <\/p>\n
\n The plant, scheduled to open in the city of Tan-Tan in late 2029, is expected to produce 30,000 tons of polysilicon annually, around 1% of current global output, Amegroud said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Morocco, a nation of 38 million on the Mediterranean, is seeking to leverage its free-trade agreements with the US, the EU and others to attract investment and ease high youth unemployment that has fueled recent protests.\n <\/p>\n
\n Sondiale, an affiliate of Tangier-based GreenPower Morocco, has already secured $100 million in support from the Moroccan government, which considers the project strategic.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States is backing a Moroccan company planning to produce a highly purified form of silicon used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-175764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}