If silicon had remained high priced it might even have worked: but as they were ramping up production into a world where the rawsilicon ingot had just fallen to 10% of its previous price they were doomed.
In 1931 American chemical engineer Samuel Kistler invented the lightest known solid--an aerogel--by drying a form of silicon dioxide (a raw material for glass) under intense pressure and high temperature.
If you need more evidence that the antidumping status quo is weighted heavily against import-consuming U.S. industries, consider this gem: three of the nine mineral raw materials that are the subject of the U.S. case against China in the WTO (magnesium, silicon metal, and coke) are simultaneously subject to U.S antidumping restrictions.