AXT, Inc. Announces Fire Damage in Manufacturing Production Area
March 16 2017 - 6:30AM
AXT, Inc. (Nasdaq:AXTI), a leading manufacturer of compound
semiconductor substrates, today announced that an electrical
short-circuit fire occurred at its Beijing manufacturing facility
on the evening of March 15, 2017, local time. The fire was
located in its gallium arsenide and germanium crystal growth
production area and production in that area has stopped. No
injuries occurred and there was no structural damage.
Although indium phosphide crystal growth, as
well as the wafer processing areas for gallium arsenide, indium
phosphide and germanium were not affected, the processing of all
wafer substrates has been halted.
The Company is working with the fire department
and other local regulatory agencies to identify the cause of the
fire and form a plan to resume production as quickly as
possible. Due to the immediacy of this event, no details are
yet available. Morris Young, CEO, and Gary Fischer, CFO,
traveled to Beijing earlier in March and remain on site at this
time to oversee the situation.
As a result of this event, the Company now
believes that revenue for the first quarter, ending March 31, 2017,
will be in the range of $18.0Mto $18.5M, compared with previous
guidance of $19.5M to $20.5M.
About AXT, Inc.
AXT designs, develops, manufactures and distributes
high-performance compound and single element semiconductor
substrates comprising indium phosphide (InP), gallium arsenide
(GaAs) and germanium (Ge) through its manufacturing facilities in
Beijing, China. In addition, AXT maintains its sales,
administration and customer service functions at its headquarters
in Fremont, California. The company’s substrate products can
be used primarily in fiber optic communications, 3-D sensing, solar
cell, lighting display applications and wireless communications.
Its vertical gradient freeze (VGF) technique for manufacturing
semiconductor substrates provides significant benefits over other
methods and enabled AXT to become a leading manufacturer of such
substrates. AXT has manufacturing facilities in China and, as part
of its supply chain strategy, has partial ownership in ten
companies in China producing raw materials. For more information,
see AXT’s website at http://www.axt.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
The foregoing paragraphs contain forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Federal securities laws,
including, our expectations with respect to our expected revenue
and our business prospects. These forward-looking statements are
based upon assumptions that are subject to uncertainties and
factors relating to the company’s operations and business
environment, which could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements
contained in the foregoing discussion. These uncertainties and
factors include but are not limited to: overall conditions in the
markets in which the company competes; global financial conditions
and uncertainties; policies and regulations in China; market
acceptance and demand for the company’s products; the impact of
factory closures, the timing of our ability to restart production
or other events causing delays by our customers on the timing
of sales of our products; our ability to control costs, our ability
to utilize our manufacturing capacity; product yields and their
impact on gross margins; and other factors as set forth in the
company’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form
10-Q and other filings made with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Each of these factors is difficult to predict and
many are beyond the company’s control. The company does not
undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement,
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact:
Gary Fischer
Chief Financial Officer
(510) 438-4700
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