• Andreas Liebheit, the president of Heraeus PT has resigned from the German global market leader for solar cell metallization pastes
  • His resignation took effect from July 15, 2018 for personal reasons, announced the company
  • In the absence of a President for HPT, Raymund Chua, head of HPT Singapore will look after the business until a successor is found

Silver paste manufacturer Heraeus Photovoltaics (HPT) of Germany has announced its President Andreas Liebheit has stepped down as its President with effect from July 15, 2018. Heraeus is the global market leader for silver pastes used for metallization of solar cells.

For the time being, he is succeeded by Raymund Chua, Head of HPT in Singapore and Head of Heraeus’ Asia-Pacific Regional Center. He will look after Heraeus PV Global Business Unit till the time company can find a successor to replace Liebheit. Global Business Units come under the umbrella of the Heraeus Group.

The Heraeus management said Liebheit departed for personal reasons and wished him well.

“I would like to personally thank Andreas Liebheit for the great commitment he has shown in expanding Heraeus Photovoltaics. Together with the leadership team and all Heraeus Photovoltaics employees, he has positioned this business as a leading provider of photovoltaic solutions,” said Heraeus CEO Jan Rinnert. “The photovoltaic industry shows great potential for growth and we are committed to capitalize on these opportunities.”

The interview comes at a time, the upstream sector is in big uproar after the world’s largest market China cuts its subsidies end of May. While module prices have been dramatically falling since then, there is also strong price pressure on wafer, cell and module processing material suppliers.

In a recent interview with TaiyangNews , Weiming Zhang, CTO of Heraeus Photovoltaics, talked about the strategy on how to maintain its #1 rank in the silver paste business (see Beyond Silver Supply Strategy). An overview about the global metallization paste business, its leading actors and the latest on products can be found in TaiyangNews Market Survey on Metallization Pastes 2018.

 In September 2017, the company announced a collaboration with module ribbon producer Ulbrich of Austria to start a new product line (see Heraeus PV & Ulbrich Enter Partnership).