Friday, April 4, 2008

Dutch company places $91M order with GT Solar

Photovoltaic manufacturing equipment maker GT Solar Inc. says it has closed a new, $91 million contract to supply Dutch firm The Silicon Mine BV with polysilicon reactors and converters.

The solar equipment is expected to be used by The Silicon Mine in conjunction with its previously announced plans to launch the first solar-grade silicon plant in the Netherlands, expected to open in late 2009, officials said.

The deal represents Merrimack, N.H.-based GT Solar's first installation of polysilicon reactors in Europe, according to GT Solar CEO Thomas Zarrella. Last year, company executives said more than 70 percent of its business came from Asia, and about 15 percent from North America.

The deal is the latest in a string of multimillion-dollar orders for GT Solar that was started with $2,000 in 1994. In March, the company landed a $200 million follow-on order from DC Chemical Co. Ltd. of South Korea, and two weeks earlier closed a similar, $49 million contract with Chinese solar manufacturer Trina Solar (Lianyungang) Co. Ltd.

Last April, GT Solar filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its intention to take the company public in an stock offering valued at $200 million. No date for the IPO has been announced.