GT Equipment Technologies Inc. (GT) has received a record 100-unit order for 100 DSS multi-crystal silicon ingot growth furnaces from LDK Solar Hi-Tech Co. Ltd. of Jiangxi, China. The new equipment will enable LDK Solar to expand its annual wafer fabrication capacity from 75 Megawatts to more than 200 Megawatts. This order follows on an initial GT Equipment Technologies' sale to LDK Solar in June of 2005, and together with other recent orders from China, cements GT's leadership position in the Chinese photovoltaic equipment market.
GT's Chairman and CEO, Kedar Gupta, said: "This order continues a pattern of strong sales growth to China, Europe and the United States. We have also achieved a significant increase in our manufacturing productivity in 2005, and the combination of these accomplishments will enable us to record the best year in our 11-year history. China is moving with great speed to acquire renewable energy resources, and GT has become a major U.S. supplier of equipment for solar wafer, cell and module manufacturing."
LDK Solar Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., located in Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, China, will start wafer production in early 2006. To meet their customers' aggressive demand for wafers, LDK Solar is planning to expand its capacity to 400 Megawatts by 2008. LDK Solar focuses on the research and manufacture of silicon solar wafers and aims to become a world-class specialized and leading supplier of multi-crystalline solar wafers of high quality.
