GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR), a global provider of polysilicon production technology, and sapphire and silicon crystalline growth systems and materials for the solar, LED and other specialty markets, announced that it has signed new contracts for its DSS™ multicrystalline growth furnaces from both new and existing customers totaling $84.3 million. The new customers include Nantong Zongyi New Material Co., Ltd. and Inner Mongolia Zhong Huan Solar Material Co., Ltd. The orders will be included in GT’s backlog for the quarter ending July 2, 2011.

“We continue to add new customers who have selected our industry-leading family of DSS multicrystalline ingot growth systems for their wafer production,” said Tom Gutierrez, president and CEO of GT Solar. “Our DSS systems offer customers an upgrade path to higher levels of productivity as we increase the performance of our systems through upgrades and system improvements. This philosophy to our architectural design delivers a high return on their capital investment and lowers their cost of ownership.”

GT continues to develop advanced crystallization growth technology that improves ingot quality and delivers value to its customers. In addition to advances in DSS system architecture, GT recently announced that researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology were able to demonstrate breakthrough cell efficiencies on monocast silicon material grown in GT’s advanced ingot casting furnace. Customers will benefit when this technology becomes fully commercialized, by lowering their cost per watt of material produced.