News Article
GT Solar receives $460.4 million order for sapphire crystallization furnaces
The firm’s largest single order to date is from a Chinese based firm who is new to the LED industry.
GT Solar International has received an order for its advanced sapphire crystallisation furnaces totalling $460.4 million from a new market entrant.
The order is GT’s largest single order to date, and represents a significant milestone for the company as a leader in the fast-growing LED industry. The order will be included in GT’s backlog for its current Q1 FY12, which ends on July 2, 2011.
“Our customer is a well established, diversified manufacturing company located in China who is new to the LED industry. We are pleased that they have selected our advanced sapphire growth technology for their new sapphire production facility,” said Tom Gutierrez, GT Solar’s president and CEO.
“The market acceptance of our sapphire growth technology has been remarkable and it speaks to the confidence our customers have shown in our ability to help them build successful businesses that leverage our crystalline growth expertise and our global equipment installation and support resources,” he continued.
According to Strategies Unlimited, an industry analyst firm that tracks the LED industry, revenue for high brightness LED applications will be approximately $19 billion by 2015, with general lighting applications accounting for about 25 % of this total. High brightness LEDs are primarily manufactured on sapphire wafers. This growth is driving the expansion of manufacturing capacity to meet the increased demand for high quality sapphire material.
