News Article
GT Solar hits the jackpot with $218.9 million order
The order for sapphire crystallisation furnaces from China based firm HTOT shows that the buoyant market for this technology is growing.
GT Solar International, a global provider of sapphire and silicon crystalline growth systems and materials for the solar, LED and other specialty markets, has received an order for its advanced sapphire crystallisation furnaces.
The order totals $218.9 million and is from China-based Guizhou Haotian Optoelectronics Technology (HTOT). The order marks HTOT’s entrance into the fast-growing LED industry, and continues GT Solar’s market momentum for its sapphire crystalline growth technology based on its advanced sapphire furnace. The order will be included in GT Solar’s backlog for its current Q1 FY12, which ends on July 2, 2011.
“Our entrance into the LED market offers a new strategic growth opportunity for our company and Guiyang City as well as the Guizhou region of China,” said Hao Xu, chairman of the board of Guizhou Industrial Investment Group.
“Our new sapphire production facility will help to stimulate economic growth in the region and establish HTOT as a leading supplier of material to the LED industry. This project requires a technology partner that can deliver reliable, highly productive equipment as well as installation and support know-how to quickly get our new factory up and running. We selected GT Solar because of its leading technology, proven track record, and years of experience enabling cost-effective, high-volume manufacturing,” concluded Xu.
“We are pleased that HTOT has selected our advanced sapphire crystallisation furnaces and look forward to a long and successful partnership over the coming years,” said Tom Gutierrez, GT Solar’s president and CEO. “We continue to see growing interest from companies looking to enter the fast-growing LED industry. Our sapphire crystal growth technology provides a proven path to producing high quality material, and our global installation and support resources enable our customers to quickly ramp to high volume, low-cost manufacturing.”
GT Solar’s advanced sapphire furnace technology is the result of over 40 years of continual process improvement and development at Crystal Systems, which was acquired by GT Solar in July of 2010. Crystal Systems is recognised as one of the leading providers of quality sapphire material for the LED and specialty optical and mechanical industries.
HTOT will be a vertically integrated manufacturer of a wide range of sapphire products including sapphire crystal, sapphire cores, sapphire wafers and other crystalline products for LEDs, RFICs, optoelectronics and other optical applications. Once fully operational, HTOT will be capable of producing very high-quality sapphire in volume production of various sizes and orientations of substrates and windows.
