POCATELLO, Idaho, Feb. 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hoku Materials, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hoku Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq:HOKU), established to manufacture and sell polysilicon for the solar market, today announced that it entered into a change order agreement under its engineering, procurement and construction management services contract with Stone & Webster, Inc., to clarify the scope of on-going work for Hoku's planned 4,000 metric tons per year polysilicon production plant. Stone & Webster is a subsidiary of The Shaw Group Inc.
The change order confirms Hoku's intent to delay the detailed engineering and construction of a portion of the polysilicon plant, the trichlorosilane (TCS) production plant area, until April 2009 and reassign construction management services to JH Kelly, LLC, Hoku's general construction contractor. JH Kelly has been primarily responsible for construction management over the past several months because they have controlled the critical path schedule on-site in Pocatello. The revised Stone & Webster scope of work includes the engineering and procurement that is required for Hoku to commercially operate the plant using third party TCS, and the scope to transition operations from third party TCS to on-site TCS production in a closed-loop production process.
"The revised scope of work is consistent with our plan to start-up the plant and commence shipments to our customers in the second half of 2009, which may be before our TCS plant is operational," said Dustin Shindo, chairman and CEO of Hoku Scientific. "Because the engineering of our TCS plant has been substantially completed by Dynamic Engineering, Inc., Stone & Webster is well positioned to resume the detailed engineering work for our TCS plant when our cash flow supports this investment. Our earlier ordering of long lead-time items, such as fluidized bed reactors and distillation columns, allows us to suspend this work for a few months without disproportionately impacting the final completion schedule."
The change order also realigns the schedule guarantees in the contract around the revised scope of work, and Stone & Webster's engineering and procurement deliverable dates.
"As we head into the home stretch, our company remains fully committed to fulfilling Hoku's engineering and procurement requirements to ensure the successful operation of this polysilicon plant," said Lou Pucher, president of Shaw's Energy & Chemical Group.
About Hoku Scientific, Inc.
Hoku Scientific (Nasdaq:HOKU) is a diversified clean energy technologies company with three business units: Hoku Materials, Hoku Solar and Hoku Fuel Cells. Hoku Materials plans to manufacture, market, and sell polysilicon for the solar market from its plant currently under construction in Pocatello, Idaho. Hoku Solar markets and installs turnkey photovoltaic systems in Hawaii. Hoku Fuel Cells has developed proprietary fuel cell membranes and membrane electrode assemblies for stationary and automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cells. For more information visit www.hokucorp.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve many risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to the cost and schedule for completing the engineering, procurement and construction of the Hoku Materials polysilicon plant; Hoku Materials' ability to procure trichlorosilane (TCS) from a third party; Hoku Materials' ability to resume the engineering of its on-site TCS production plant in April 2009, and the timing of when Hoku Materials' cash flow will support the resumption of TCS engineering work; Hoku Materials' ability to successfully operate a polysilicon production plant, including its ability to start-up its polysilicon plant and commence shipments to customers in the second half of 2009; Stone & Webster's ability to meet its engineering deliverables schedule in its contract with Hoku Materials; Hoku Scientific's future financial performance; Hoku Scientific's business strategy and plans; and objectives of management for future operations. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Hoku Scientific's actual results, performance, time frames or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, time frames or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Given these risks, uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider the risks described in Hoku Scientific's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Hoku Scientific assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
Hoku, Hoku Solar, and the Hoku Scientific logo are trademarks of Hoku Scientific, Inc., and Hoku Materials is the trademark of Hoku Materials, Inc., all rights reserved.