Valentin P. Gapontsev
Management
Good morning everyone. IPG delivered another record quarter, with all time high revenues and net income. Revenues of $121.9 million grew by 81%, while net income came in nearly 200% higher than the same quarter in 2010. Although last year’s sales performance was impacted by poor market conditions, we increased sales over both our strong Q1, 2011 by 22%. We also improved gross margin year-over-year to 54.7%, and reported earnings of $0.63 per diluted share. We continued to experience strong demand momentum across all regions, particularly in Europe, China and North America. Sales grew by 92% in Europe and 60% in North America. For the second consecutive quarter, China was the standout performer from a geographic perspective, reporting an impressive 129% increase over last year. Sales for materials processing applications grew by 88% and accounted for nearly 89% of total sales for the quarter. Fiber lasers used for welding, cutting, cladding, marking and engraving are most in demand. IPG’s high-power and pulsed lasers remain our top sellers. High-power laser sales, which make up approximately 45% of our total sales, grew 134% from last year, while pulsed lasers, which account for 28% of the total, increased 52%. The performance for the first half of 2011 has been very strong, with demand growing across most geographies, end markets and products. We are at an exciting point in time for IPG, as companies worldwide are rapidly adopting fiber lasers and migrating away from conventional lasers as they realize the impressive benefits of our products. We mentioned until on last quarter’s call that there were numerous OEMs demonstrating cutting systems using IPG’s lasers at last year’s EuroBLECH show in Hanover Germany. At that show, there were four cutting OEMs that were demonstrating systems they did not use IPG lasers. At the time of the call, three had already stated their intention to switch over to IPG. In Q2, two of those companies began placing orders for IPG lasers. This is not a unique case. We frequently see companies evaluate competitive products and then a return to IPG. In addition to our size, power and capability advantages, IPG’s abilities to mass manufacture tens of thousands of units of low-power lasers and thousands of units of high-power lasers for customers at cost effective prices are unmatched. We believe that this manufacturing capability is helping to sustain the competitive advantage created by our superior technology. Besides our growing number of OEM systems customers, we are also witnessing growing interest in our ultra-high power fiber lasers for unique projects that take advantage of the unique features of fiber laser technology. Some interesting projects we are engaged in include nuclear facility demolition, oil well fire suppression, thick pipe welding, construction works and high-speed cladding. Development of these applications takes time, but we are seeing growing interest in our ultra-high power fiber lasers that expand the total available application uses of lasers. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Tim Mammen.