The Baltic Crystal company announces that its USD 15 million –invested new synthetic monocrystalline sapphire plant located in Latvia, in the territory of the European Union has started operation. During the initial stage of operations, the plant’s end-product will be 4" and 6" (in diameter) cylindrical crystal ingots. Long-term plans also include producing as-cut wafers. The plant’s average production capacity could reach around 30 tons of crystals per year, turnover - USD 13 million.

“We have introduced a unique production process quality management system, which considerably increases the output of crystals suitable for industrial production and guarantees clients constant volumes of high quality production. Moreover, a high level of automation of our production technologies helps us to anticipate how many crystals would be of good quality before their growing process finishes, so it means we can satisfy any volumes of supplies. We believe that we are competitive newcomers on the world’s market of sapphire producers,” emphasizes Andrey Mikhaylov, CEO of Baltic Crystal.

Baltic Crystal representative predicts that the company’s long-term development will be determined by future market trends. After achieving the initially planned production capacity in the first year of operations, Baltic Crystal could set up additional equipment, increasing crystal growing and ingot production volumes or launch in-depth crystal processing, producing polished plates for light-emitting diodes for Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean and Japanese markets.