Plainview LED toolmaker gets big Chinese order

Plainview-based Veeco Instruments Inc., a maker of the tools used to create light-emitting diodes, has made a major sale of the instruments to a Chinese manufacturer.

The Veeco tools will be used primarily to produce backlighting LEDs, which are in high demand for use in laptop screens, PC monitors, flat-screen TVs and cell phones.

LEDs are increasingly favored by electronics makers because they consume far less power than traditional light sources and extend battery life.

The buyer, Elec-Tech International, is buying 130 MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) tools, "the majority" coming from Veeco. Each tool sells for $2.5 million. A Veeco official on Friday declined to say exactly how many of the 130 tools it will supply or to provide the dollar value of the sale.

Elec-Tech, with two factories in Guangdong province, also uses LEDs to illuminate the screens of small home appliances such as coffee makers and breadmakers, and for treadmills and other exercise machines. Elec-Tech will produce LEDs in new factories in Wuhu and Yangzhou, China.