Chamber President Mike Seward, left, greets speaker Jim Cross of the Hemlock Semiconductor Plant, Fred Hollister of Bay Future, Inc., and Mike Debo, chamber chair, right.

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Chamber's Seward Urges Public Campaign
To Back Consumers Construction

Dow Corning Has 1,600 Contractors on Site at Hemlock as Local Economy Heats

February 3, 2009
By: Dave Rogers

Attend the public hearings March 31 and April 1 at Bay Valley!

Write letters to the governor and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality!

Be enthusiastic about a project that means progress for Bay County and the area!

Those are steps urged by Mike Seward, president of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Tuesday morning at the chamber's eye-opener breakfast.

What is the important project?

A proposed $2.3 billion addition to the Karn-Weadock plant of Consumers Energy Corp. located at the mouth of the Saginaw River in Hampton Township.

Expect backing from every governmental unit in the county, and non-governmental units like the Republican and Democratic parties, said Mr. Seward.

Labor unions will be on board and in fact will be holding job fairs during the public hearings, the chamber leader said.

Mr. Seward was preaching to the choir as about 100 members jammed the Kingfish Restaurant, 1019 N. Water St., for a real "eye opener" featuring Jim Cross, site manager of Dow Corning's Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) plant.

Despite the national economic downturn, HSC is adding 50-100 employees to keep up with zooming demand. "We have been able to sell everything we make," said Mr. Cross, explaining to the crowd "who are those guys?"

HSC is the "world's largest supplier of polycrystalline silicon raw materials supplied to the electronics and solar power industries," he said.

The privately-held firm, a joint venture between Dow Chemical Co. and the Corning Glass Works of New York, has taken on two Japanese partners in the HSC and other polycrystalline silicon ventures, he said. The partnership is a "win-win situation, helping us maintain a leadership role," he commented.

Eyes of chamber members were opened even wider when Mr. Cross told of 1,600 construction workers on site at the Saginaw County plant that is undergoing a $1 billion expansion.

The plant is running at capacity even though cranes and construction equipment are all over the site in Thomas Township, he said.

Mr. Cross had the following news flashes for the eager crowd:

The 2005 half-billion dollar expansion at HSC is now on line;

The May 2007 $1 billion expansion is well underway and will begin to come on line this year; and

Work is started on the December 2008 announced $1 billion expansion along with a similar project in Tennessee.

The fact that a recession is underway is a benefit in one way to HSC, he said: it allows the company to keep up with demand for its main product -- polycrystalline silicon.

Poly what,? you ask. All you need to know is this: The product is present in one of three electronic devices used the the world today. And, as a bonus, it is a main component of solar energy devices. Need we say more?

The solar industry has been set back by the lessening of availability of funds for large-scale projects, according to Mr. Cross. The hoped-for tsunami of new companies clustering around the tri-county area may be in the offing, said Fred Hollister, president of Bay Future, Inc. (BFI). The local public-private economic development agency will be meeting with counterparts from Saginaw and Midland Feb. 12 at Saginaw Valley State University to ramp up the effort and ease barriers to new business location in the area.

One reason HSC is adding another plant near Clarksville, Tennessee, said Mr. Cross, is that the Hemlock site is hemmed in by wetlands, making it difficult to add more facilities there.

Nonetheless, the $1 billion expansion is underway and will be followed by a similar-size facility to address the enviable situation HSC finds itself in with "demand higher than supply for product," said Mr. Cross.

Even with the extensive work at Hemlock, much of it done by local contractors, the company had some retention problems caused by other projects in the Midwest drawing off skilled workers, engineers and other employees, said Mr. Cross.

The Delta College Chemical Process Engineering program has provided "a pipeline" of needed workers benefiting HSC, he said.###