About a year ago LDK Solar (LDK) announced a deal with JYT Corp (a competitor of GT Solar) to begin purchasing silicon ingot furnaces that would be capable of producing 800kg ingots, allowing the company greater quality, efficiencies and margins.  The day may be just around the corner when the company can declare it is using those furnaces to their full capacity.  Today, the company has announced it has reached a milestone by producing a silicon ingot weighing 660 kg which is a 46.7% increase over the standard 450 kg ingot. 

“We have continued to develop technology aimed at solidifying and augmenting LDK Solar’s cost leadership position. Our objective with this development was to improve product quality and at the same time decrease the cost of multicrystalline ingot production. The larger ingots will lower capital expenditure and contribute to the reduction of production cost. The increased charge size directly contributes to lower power consumption, higher yields, improved efficiencies of downstream processing equipment, and reduced unit consumption of consumables and some direct costs”, said Chief Technology Officer Dr Yuepeng Wan.

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