Kyocera quarterly report: Solar PV sales, margins boom
(SolarServer.com) Kyocera Corp. (Kyoto, Japan) has released financial results for the quarter ending June 30th, 2013, reporting a 44 percent increase in revenues compared with the same period a year ago in its Applied Ceramics division. The division, which makes solar photovoltaic (PV) products, saw revenues grow to $623 million and also reports an increase in operating margin to 13%. The company credits this uptick in both sales and margins to booming demand in multiple sectors of the Japanese PV market, driven by the nation’s feed-in tariff. Kyocera expects demand to continue to increase, and reported $674 million in Applied Ceramics orders during the quarter. The company expects sales of $2.3 billion in the division for the 2014 fiscal year.
Solidia commercializes patented cement formulation, production method
Solidia Technologies (Piscataway, N.J.) has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, for a patented technology that reduces carbon dioxide emissions in the production of cement and concrete products up to 70 percent. Including two recently issued U.S. patents, the agreement covers a portfolio of more than 50 U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications for technologies that produce a stronger, more durable concrete that costs less and requires less energy, water, and time than conventional materials. The company says material produced using its process is a durable replacement for conventional concrete that sequesters CO2 equal to 5 percent of its weight during curing and can be designed for compressive strength, abrasion resistance and freeze-thaw cycling resilience that are equal to, or better than, that of conventional concrete. Combined with CO2 emissions avoided during cement production, this results in a carbon footprint reduction in concrete-based construction products by up to 70 percent.
Quintiliani joins Blasch Precision Ceramics as sales engineer
Joseph Quintiliani joined Blasch Precision Ceramics as a sales engineer. He will have account responsibility for North American refinery and chemical process customers, providing sales and application engineering support. He will focus on the continued commercial deployment of the Blasch VectorWall mixing checkerwall system for refinery sulfur recovery systems as well as other product lines. Quintiliani will be working at the company’s main facility in Albany, N.Y.
New zirconia nanocrystal products
Pixelligent Technologies, Baltimore, Md., has added three new products to its PixClear zirconia nanocrystal line. The new formulations provide device manufacturers with additional light management options for display and lighting applications. The materials are said to increase light output and readability in touch screens and displays and significantly reduce glare/sparkle and improve scratch resistance when incorporated into clear protective films. Proprietary dispersions enable delivery of formulations with nanocrystal loadings in excess of 80 percent by weight while reaching a refractive index as high as 1.85. All four formulations of PixClear™ and PixClear™ 4CAP can be ordered online at www.pixelligent.com.
SCI reports
second quarter results
SCI Engineered Materials Inc., a Columbus, Ohio, supplier of advanced ceramics and materials for PVD thin film applications, recently reported financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2013. Second quarter 2013 gross profit was $398,191, compared to $173,599 for the first quarter and $523,032 for the second quarter of 2012. SCI attributed the sequential quarter increase to improved product mix and cost controls, while the year-over-year decline was primarily due to lower product volume. Gross profit margin of 22.2 percent for the quarter was above both the 12.1 percent for the first quarter of 2013 and 19.3 percent for the second quarter of 2012. The quarter ended with a $2.4 million order backlog, a 52% increase from the previous quarter. The company reported a loss of $0.02 per share for quarter, compared with $0.07 per share for the first quarter, and said the improvement was due to increased total revenue, improved gross profit, and lower operating expenses.