GT Advanced Technologies President And CEO Tom Gutierrez Celebrates The Unveiling Of The First Sapphire Boules Produced In HTOT's New Sapphire Manufacturing Facility Located In Guiyang City, China. (Photo: Business Wire)

GT Advanced Technologies Inc., (NASDAQ: GTAT), today announced that its sapphire equipment customer, Haotian Optoelectronics Technology (HTOT), celebrated the opening of its sapphire production facility with a gala event on Wednesday, October 26, at HTOT’s new facility located in Guiyang City, Guizhou Provence, China. The city’s Vice Mayor hosted the celebration, which included attendance of key provincial and local party officials as well as HTOT sapphire material customers. Attending on GT’s behalf were president and CEO Tom Gutierrez, Cheryl Diuguid, the company’s vice president and general manager of its sapphire material and equipment business and Jeff Ford, GT’s vice president and general manager of Asia.

GT Advanced Technologies president and CEO Tom Gutierrez celebrates the unveiling of the first sapphire boules produced in HTOT's new sapphire manufacturing facility located in Guiyang City, China. (Photo: Business Wire)

“We were delighted to be part of HTOT’s celebration commemorating their official entrance into the sapphire material industry,” said Tom Gutierrez. “Over the coming months we will work closely with the HTOT team to ensure a smooth ramp to volume production in their new state-of-the-art facility, which incorporates our ASF crystal growth equipment. In their initial production runs, HTOT has successfully grown four high quality boules, all of which were over 100 kilograms.”

Gutierrez continued, “GT has a proven track record of partnering with companies to accelerate their entry into new markets by giving them the tools and support they need to become key industry players. Over the next few months we expect several of our other key sapphire customers in Asia to start producing sapphire and we look forward to working with these customers to ensure their smooth entrance into the sapphire growth industry.”