Veeco, a specialist in creating equipment to develop and manufacture LEDs, solar panels and hard disk drives, has recently inaugurated its new China Training Center (CTC) in Shanghai as part of its expansion strategy.
The new center will support the company’s rapid growth of the LED industry and the needs of its customers. The official grand opening was attended by many honored guests, including several of Veeco’s key Chinese LED customers and important local government officials.
The new center reportedly has 1,700 square meters of floor area that can accommodate around 40 Veeco employees, and includes three classrooms as well as Veeco’s market leading TurboDisc K465i MOCVD system.
John R. Peeler, Veeco’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “China is making an enormous investment to become a world leading manufacturer of LED, both for its own domestic consumption and to export. In fact, China has stated targets to convert 30% of the domestic lighting market to LEDs by 2015. China represented nearly 30% of Veeco’s 2010 revenue, or $267 million, up from $30 million in 2009, and Chinese companies will potentially represent over half of our $1 billion-plus revenue forecasted for 2011.”
The company shipped MOCVD tools to 20 customers last year, including existing LED manufacturers, joint venture companies as well as some new start-up enterprises. They are excited to be opening their new Shanghai customer training and support center to support this explosive growth and strengthen their leadership position in China.
Peter Collingwood, Veeco’s Senior Vice President, Sales & Service, added, “Many of our customers are building or significantly expanding factories, often in new ‘LED/green energy’ parks. Our training center in Shanghai was therefore developed specifically to help our Chinese customers ‘go faster’ to ramp production of LEDs.”
Peeler also announced Veeco’s plan of investing over $30 million in 2011 to dramatically expand its Asia footprint and to help customers continue to accelerate the pace of adoption of LEDs.