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TWST: We would like to begin with a brief historical sketch of BTU
International and a picture of the things you are doing at the present
time.
Mr. van der Wansem: Historically, our company has been a leading
provider of thermal process equipment for the electronics manufacturing
industry. However, we expanded our strategy almost two years ago, and
today we are also focused on serving the dynamic alternative energy
generation market. Our alternative energy generation market really
consists of three sectors. The first is solar ' the manufacturing of
photovoltaics or solar cells. The second is nuclear ' the sintering
processes used to manufacture nuclear fuel. And the third sector is fuel
cells ' specifically solid oxide fuel cells for stationary power supply.
These alternative energy generation markets are our key focus today. Our
traditional electronics manufacturing market breaks down into two
segments. The first is solder reflow equipment for the manufacturing and
assembly of printed circuit boards. The second segment consists of the
various thermal processing steps involved in the packaging of
semiconductors. We used to address a number of other applications for
various industries, but we are now clearly focused on providing our
thermal processing equipment to these two primary markets: electronics
manufacturing and alternative energy generation. We furthermore have
become very international, growing with our customer base, especially in
electronics, which has moved very much to the Far East, specifically
China, Taiwan, and Korea. We are at a point in time where over 85% of
all of our output is going outside of the United States into Asia and
Europe, and some of it to South America as well. TWST: What were the reasons for the company's change of focus two years
ago?
Mr. van der Wansem: I attempted to retire a few years ago, but was
highly unsuccessful. After two years of being out of the CEO position, I
was called back by the Board. This was almost two years ago. We sat down
and started to think about our strategy, and we came to the conclusion
that to maximize our long-term growth and to optimize the potential of
our thermal processing technologies, we would continue to serve the
electronics market as we had done for many years, and, in addition,
apply similar technologies to the production of alternative energy. The
alternative energy market is obviously driven by the rising cost of gas
and oil. That, and the environmental issues surrounding the burning of
gas and oil, led us to go in the direction of the alternative energy
markets, where we are now applying technologies that are similar to
those we traditionally used for semiconductor and electronics
manufacturing. We are excited by the fact that we are now applying our
technologies for the production of alternative energy.
Tickers included in this excerpt: BTUI
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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