interview business
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It’s been a roller coaster year for AkzoNobel’s High Purity Metalorganics division.
Orders in the first quarter were incredibly weak, but the return of a burgeoning
LED industry and great solar prospects are strongly reviving the business.
Richard Stevenson talks to Michiel Floor, AkzoNobel’s global business
manager of these products, about this division’s change in fortunes and other
recent developments.
Rocketing LED manufacture spurs
AkzoNobel’s metalorganics division
Q
The end of 2008 was a really tough time
for substrate suppliers. Did your experience Q
How have sales from the high-purity
metalorganics (HPMO) division fared since
echo theirs? then?
Over the last
A
Our business was running strongly in 2008 until it
A
We saw extremely slow demand in the first quarter, few years
fell off a cliff in mid-November. In the month after we but visibility recovered by the end of this period. AkzoNobel has
felt the impact of low operating rates at many of our Then orders came in, and we started shipping products increased the
customers. They keep quite significant stocks of our again, but this was quite well into the second quarter size of its
products, and decided to live off this before re-ordering. 2009. The first signs of recovery, as always, were in Asia, metalorganic
and we started shipping products to them in May. bubblers.
We had to quickly reduce costs wherever possible. One I think it’s remarkable how the LED industry has turned Recent
of our advantages is that we produce our metal-organic itself around. We talked to our customers in the first additions
sources at a large plant in Texas, near Houston, and this is quarter - many were working part time, having reductions include a 20
shared with our larger metalorganic manufacturing in labor force, and so on, and capacity was down in the Kg trimethyl
organization that sells metal alkyls to the polymer and 30-40 percent utilization level. Now most of our gallium bubbler
pharmaceutical industries. That business suffered much customers are buying new machines, and we’ve worked
less than ours, and we shared resources and reduced our hard to get our share on the new
cost base temporarily. tools. What we feel –
based on what our
In the crisis - which lasted well into at least the second customers tell us and what
quarter of 2009 - we used the time to refocus on our own we hear from the tool
technology and manufacturing, and made good progress vendors, Aixtron and Veeco
to start preparing for the growth that would come as the – is that this trend will
industry picked up. continue well into 2010 and
very likely beyond.
November / December 2009 www.compoundsemiconductor.net 37
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