Pocatello - Hoku Polysilicon plant

Could anyone provide an update on the construction of the planned Hoku polysilicon plant. Apparantly:

"Pocatello did not have an easement and neither the City of Pocatello nor Hoku can enter the Land without trespassing on neighboring land, except that the City of Pocatello has represented in the Ground Lease that Hoku Materials has a legal right of access to the land over an at-grade railroad crossing"

I don't have the time myself to read all of the articles, but if you go to these local news sites and search for the word "HOKU" on them, you'll pull up a handful of recent and older articles as reported by our press in Pocatello.

www.kidk.com
www.kpvi.com
www.journalnet.com

Thanks - has anyone driven by the site and seen any construction activity going on ?

curious wrote:

Thanks - has anyone driven by the site and seen any construction activity going on ?

Yes, and there appears to be none, and word has it that there is a bit of a failure on the part of Pocatello to provide access and a rail spur as was originally agreed. Hearsay, however! Don't know the facts for sure!

Thanks - All of the contracts are contingent on meeting certain milestones in manufacturing and quality by specific dates, how the they meet these requirements if construction hasn't started yet?

HokuWatcher wrote:

<quoted text>
Yes, and there appears to be none, and word has it that there is a bit of a failure on the part of Pocatello to provide access and a rail spur as was originally agreed. Hearsay, however! Don't know the facts for sure!

Can you give me an idea of the construction season in Pocatello? If they don't start soon, will they have to regroup and wait until spring '08?

Also, any sign of construction yet? Thanks.

HOKU seems to be a dead or very quiet subject here in the news lately. I cannot speak about actual construction since I don't make it to Pocatello often but I'll look next time I go there.

As for the construction season, I'm not in the business, but it's pretty cold here "generally" November-March. Sometimes longer. We had a pretty mild winter last year, but temps still got below 0 several days. For as long as I've lived here, temps in the teens-30's are the most common winter months.

If I was you, I'd email either the Journal or the news sites listed above and ask them to do an updated story on the exact goings-on with HOKU. The news is generally pretty quiet around here and they will probably jump on a nudge for a story.

This is a local recent (well, somewhat) news article. I have heard several times they are still looking for funding for the $150 million.

HOKU Looks to Expand Unbuilt Pocatello Plant
June 22, 2007 03:00 PM

Plans for HOKU's yet-to-be-built polysilicon plant in Pocatello could be expanding by 50 per cent. This comes as the company announced a new $185 million contract today with a division of Solar-Fabrik for shipments of polysilicon to start in the second half of 2009. Two million dollars will be paid up front.

While a company spokesman says the Pocatello plant is meeting deadlines to be ready, HOKU still needs to find $150 million dollars in either up front payments or debt financing to pay for construction.

Under current plans the Pocatello plant would be capable of making 2000 metric tons of polysilicon a year. Now HOKU feels like it needs to be able to produce 3000 metric tons.

Today's contract with Solar-Fabrik means HOKU has contracts for polysilicon now totaling $1.2 billion. Solar Fabrik will use the polysilicon to execute its global expansion strategy.

One week ago today HOKU announced a $678 million dollar contract with Suntech Power Holdings. In January HOKU signed its first agreement with Sanyo for $370 million. Between the three contracts HOKU now has $211 million dollars in Advance Customer Payments.

Any further word on whether they've started construction or not?

I have followed Hoku since the IPO. I prefer first hand info. SO....I drove to Pocatello today (Sat Aug 4) to look for myself. Climbed thru the Barbed wire fence, etc.
The land has been leveled by grader. THATS IT! There isn't any equipment for trenching for foundations or anything. No stakes with colored tape marking the location of buildings or anything.
I will return in two weeks for another look. I have a contact in Pocatello city hall who I will phone to see if I can learn something.

This article is taken from the Saturday August 11th Pocatello paper:

Hoku picks contractor for Pocatello plant

BY ADAM CHAMBERS achambers@journalnet.com

POCATELLO — Hoku Scientific announced Thursday that it has awarded a contract to Stone & Webster Inc., to perform engineering, procurement and construction management services in building the polysilicon plant in Pocatello.
Stone & Webster is a subsidiary of the Shaw Group, a Fortune 500 company that specializes in serving energy, chemical environmental, infrastructure and emergency response organizations.
The general contracting company projects a cost of $260 million to build Hoku Materials near the Great Western Malting plant, and is scheduled to have the first reactors at the polysilicon plant to be operational in the second half of 2008.
Mechanical completion is set for January 2009 and Stone & Webster plans to be finished with all construction by May 2009.
“Signing an engineering, procurement and construction management contract was an important component in order to construct our polysilicon plant and a necessary step for debt financing,” said Dustin Shindo, chairman of the board of directors, president and CEO of Hoku Scientific, in a press release.“We are pleased to have partnered with Shaw, a company with strong experience and a demonstrated record of delivering fast-track projects”
The contract with the construction company is for the completion of a facility that has capacity to annually produce 2,000 metric tons of polysilicon. However, company officials said that Hoku’s plans to produce between 2,000 and 3,000 metric tons per year has not changed.
The new facility will be built with certain oversized areas, which will allow for the additional 1,000 metric tons per year, if needed.
According to a released statement, president of Shaw’s Energy and Chemical Group, Lou Poucher, is pleased to be working with the Hawaii-based Hoku Scientific to develop the Pocatello plant.
“We are impressed with the progress that Hoku has already made, and look forward to contributing to their efforts and success,” he said.

Bill - any sign of construction progress yet? Although it sounds like they have a contract issued for construction, they also seem to be saying that they need more money to complete it.

Here is the latest news I've seen, aired on channel 8 Oct 18
http://www.kpvi.com/Global/story.asp...

Here is a recently released article about the project: http://www.equitygroups.com/nasd/hoku/message...

If you go to the youtube website and search for hoku construction, you'll find a video someone made about the proposed site for the plant. Lots of views from various angles and a description of the location. Doesn't look like much has happened yet.

1 billion in contracts...is this true?

$1 billion in future conytacts according to news over last 6 months.

Progress in financing:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/535...

Does anyone have any updated information on the HOKU plant construction? It seems like we would have heard something by now if this was really going ahead...

I'm also interested in finding out about HOKU's progress.

The latest on the Pocatello site:

http://www.kpvi.com/Global/story.asp...