Steve Martin
Timminco Ltd.
TIM-T
BUY ON WEAKNESS
Apr 18, 2008
Recent deal with the German solar manufacturer is quite significant. A problem with metallurgical silicon is that no one knows what the problems will be in 10 or 20 years. Will cells degrade quicker than conventional cells? Stock has reached a point where it is not going to definitely be a home run. Still looks attractive based on earnings potential, but shorts are starting to come into the market now. Long term he is positive on it.
This has become a speculative situation. Market had thought their silicon production was going to be commercially viable and demand would be strong. There are now doubts about their process and that it is scalable.
This is a long-term view that the price of oil is going to go up in the future. If that comes to be true, there has to be other ways to produce electricity. Solar energy is probably one of the best ways to do this. Almost every stock in the solar industry got crushed last year because of the drop in the price of oil. If you still believe in the solar industry for the next 10 to 20 years this is one that will be producing.
Used to like this company a lot but doesn’t like it all now. Failed to meet expectations, kept running out of money and giving away shares to solve their pre-payment problems.
Used to follow it before the incredible run. There were always questions about the technology of the company. He doesn’t bite into something he doesn’t understand. He would steer clear of it.
The production quality and quantity never hit what they expected. They had all these customers they pre-paid and had to give back shares. He runs as fast as possible from this situation.