Thursday, August 7, 2008

Spire sells systems to another Chinese solar cell maker

By Mass High Tech Staff

For the second time in a week, Bedford-based solar equipment manufacturer Spire Corp. has landed a new deal with a Chinese photovoltaic manufacturer.

The most recent contract comes from ChengDu Tianwei New Energy PV Module Co. Ltd. (Tianwei). Under terms of the deal, Spire will provide the company with multiple Spi-Assembler 6000 systems to fully automate the soldering of individual solar cells into strings, as well as multiple units of its Spi-Sun Simulator, used for testing the performance of the solar panels.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Based in the Hebei Province of the People’s Republic of China, The Tianwei Group dates back to 1958 as a manufacturer and player in the energy industry. Today, the company has two core businesses: electricity transmission equipment and new energy products.

Last week, Spire (Nasdaq: SPIR) announced a multi-year, multi-system contract with Trina Solar Ltd. of China, which also included the firm’s testing and simulation equipment.

While executives at Spire said they are seeing a tremendous opportunity in China, the company has also penetrated other parts of the world in recent months. Last month, the company announced a new contract to provide product safety certifier Underwriters Laboratories Inc. with test equipment for the U.S. and China. In June, Spire won a contract from PLG Power Ltd. of India. And in May, it won a similar contract from Russian chemical company Bogoroditsk Plant of Techno-Chemical Products for the Russian company’s first solar module manufacturing facility.

In 2007, Spire reported a net loss of $1.7 million on revenue of $38.4 million.