CVD Equipment Corporation (Nasdaq: CVV) announced that 2008 order levels reached $29.0 million, more than double the 2007 order levels of $14.4 million, an increase of 101%. Approximately half of the orders in 2008 were solar and energy market related with most incorporating CVD proprietary and/or patent pending thin film solutions for enabling tomorrow's technology™.
Most of the order growth came from solar/energy generation and energy saving fields as a result of our expanded process and equipment solution offerings designed to accelerate the commercialization of tomorrow’s technologies.
2008 order levels for the CVD/FN and SDC divisions increased by 146% and 58% respectively, while the Conceptronic division decreased slightly by 3% compared to 2007 order levels. The CVD/FN and SDC divisions benefited from the increased business interest in energy generation and energy savings fields. We anticipate this trend to continue. The Conceptronic division was impacted by the downturn in the electronics industry over the last two quarters. We expect this trend to continue at least through the first two quarters in 2009.
The large demand for energy savings, energy generation materials and products needed to address rising energy costs creates a growing demand for manufacturing solutions using thin film coatings on glass, wafers and other substrates. Using our application laboratory, we will perfect and expand the multiple areas where low cost thin film manufacturing solutions can be applied and further optimize our proprietary and patent pending technologies for cost and performance. The solar, energy and power semiconductor markets we are addressing with multiple products have significant growth opportunities for technologies that deliver favorable cost benefits. These fields should benefit further from a renewed drive for energy savings and generation driven by President-elect Obama’s administration.