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Merrimack, N.H., Firm Will Provide Solar Panel Equipment to Chinese Company

Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 11--MERRIMACK -- GT Equipment Technologies inked its biggest deal by signing a $33 million contract to provide a large Chinese company with machines to make silicon wafers for solar energy panels, according to company officials.

It signed the agreement with LDK Solar Hi-Tech Co. Ltd. of Jiangxi, China. GT Solar Technologies, a division of GT Equipment Technologies, will make the products.

"This is the largest contract in GT Equipment's 11-year history. It will provide LDK Solar with the ability to manufacture and sell solar wafers in the major market of China where the demand for energy resources is growing at a fast clip," according to Kedar Gupta, GT Equipment Technologies' chairman and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. GT Equipment makes manufacturing machines for the photovoltaic and semiconductor industries.

This contract is more than the company saw in revenue last year, which was $23 million, according to Fred Kocher, GT Equipment's senior advisor for corporate communications worldwide.

The company has been on growth path for the last couple of years -- it brought in $9.5 million two years ago, which then grew to $23 million last year. The company's work force has gone from 35 two years ago to the current staff of 80, Kocher said.

And although the company built its new manufacturing and headquarters building on Daniel Webster Highway just a few years ago, Kocher said this contract and its probable follow-up contract for the same amount in 2006 means it will have to expand.

"We have enough room now, but we've been talking about expanding the building, and it's really not a matter of if, it's a matter of when," Kocher said.

After all, GT Equipment is helping a company enter the solar energy business and then double its production in 2006, Kocher said.

By October 2005, LDK Solar plans to double its solar wafer capacity with GT Equipment and to produce 200 megawatts by the end of 2006, which would make them one of the major suppliers worldwide, according to GT officials.

"We are enthusiastic about our relationship with GT Equipment Technologies, and about the opportunity we have to manufacture solar wafers for distribution in China and worldwide," said Light DK Peng, LDK Solar's president, in a prepared statement. "Our total investment to date in this solar energy project is $72.5 million, including the amount announced today. GT Solar Technologies has an excellent reputation in the solar energy world for producing advanced and reliable equipment for the production of solar wafers."

This isn't GT Equipment's first contract with a Chinese company. Last November, its GT Solar Technologies signed a $9.5 million contract to provide special silicon furnaces. The furnaces made it possible for Baoding Tianwei Yingli New Energy Resources Co. Lt. of China to increase the capacity of their silicon production to more than 50 megawatts of multi-crystal wafers for solar cells.

And the November contract was a follow-on order to supply the Chinese company with wafer and cell lines. And a year ago, GT Solar signed a $14 million contract with a Taiwan-based company for equipment to make solar cells.

LDK Solar Hi-Tech Co. Ltd. is part of Liouxin Group, which has 12,000 employees. It makes personal protective equipment, power tools and elevators. With this agreement, the company is diversifying into solar energy products.

GT Equipment is a privately held company based in Merrimack.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.

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Source: The Telegraph

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