16 March 2017

AXT’s Beijing plant suffers fire damage in GaAs and Ge crystal growth production area

AXT Inc of Fremont, CA, USA – which makes gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) and germanium (Ge) substrates and raw materials – says that, on the evening of 15 March, an electrical short-circuit fire occurred in the GaAs and Ge crystal growth production area of its Beijing manufacturing facility, and that production in that area has stopped. No injuries occurred and there was no structural damage.

Although InP crystal growth, as well as the wafer processing areas for GaAs, InP and Ge, were not affected, the processing of all wafer substrates has been halted.

AXT says that it is working with the fire department and other local regulatory agencies to identify the cause of the fire and to form a plan to resume production as quickly as possible.

Due to the immediacy of this event, no details are yet available. Chief executive officer Morris Young and chief financial officer Gary Fischer had previously traveled to Beijing earlier in March, and therefore remain on site to oversee the situation.

As a result of this fire, AXT has lowered its guidance for first-quarter 2017 revenue from $19.5-20.5m to $18-18.5m.

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AXT prices public offering to raise $27.7m

AXT's Q4 revenue up 12% year-on-year to a higher-than-expected $20.3m

Tags: AXT GaAs substrate InP Germanium

Visit: www.axt.com