Price Hike Powers Shares of MEMC

MEMC Electronic Materials(WFR Quote) may be providing a model for companies hit by rising commodity prices -- control your own supply chain.

Shares of the silicon-wafer manufacturer jumped again this week to sit at just under $20 -- a five-year high -- as investors see good things from rising silicon prices.

While MEMC makes wafers, it also makes its own polysilicon, the central building block of semiconductor chips and the main ingredient used to make the wafers used to build microchips for electronics gear. ...