AU alumnus to preside at opening of plant in China

6/19/07

Dr. Joel Moskowitz, a 1961 graduate of Alfred University, long-time member of its Board of Trustees, and founder of Ceradyne, Inc., will preside a ceremonies marking the opening of a 98,000-square-foot factory in Tianjin, the People's Republic of China, Wednesday (June 20, 2007).

The plant, which will be owned and operated by Ceradyne Technical Ceramics, will manufacture silica ceramic crucibles to be used in the manufacture of solar cells that will, in turn, allow "our customers… to produce 'clean and green' electricity in China and elsewhere," said Moskowitz.

"We believe this first Ceradyne manufacturing plant will be the beginning of a series of factories in China designed to manufacture advanced technical ceramics for a wide variety of solar, industrial and commercial applications,"Moskowitz noted. "We intend to use this modern factory as the base for additional manufacturing."

He said Ceradyne, Inc., the parent company, hopes to build additional manufacturing capacity in China to serve developing markets there. Once that demand has been met, he said, then Ceradyne Technical Ceramics will begin to address exports.

In his prepared remarks, Moskowitz notes the company's "intention is to fund these capital expenditures with cash generated by Ceradyne with no debt. We plan to have our factory run and managed by Chinese citizens. We are very pleased with long-time Ceradyne executive Ms. Lu Ning, and our Tianjin General Manager Dr. Shuhai Wang, who, coincidentally did his post-doctoral work at Alfred University in technical ceramics. This University, located in New York State, is the same school I graduated from many years ago in 1961, having studied technical ceramics."

In closing, Moskowitz will tell his guests, "We believe China is a major opportunity for us. We will invest capital and introduce advanced technical ceramics in China using this Tianjin facility as a base. We plan to hire Chinese employees and be a profitable, worthy, responsible corporate citizen."