Four major phenomena occurred simultaneously in the sapphire market leading to global supply shortage for patterned sapphire substrate (PSS), according to Chinese-language Economic Daily News. Large PSS manufacturer Ridgetech Microelectronics stock rose over 30 percent in a single day on the Taiwan stock exchange, which drove up Tera Xtal Technology and Chrystal Applied Technology stocks by 10 percent. The industry believes that this wave of sapphire substrate demand will spread to upstream CSS and ingot.
The current PSS supply shortage stems from increased LED backlight and LED lighting demands, which pushed up utilization rates for LED epitaxial manufacturers. Mainland Chinese LED epitaxial manufactures have expanded production to move from 2 inch to 4 inch PSS. Since 2 inch and 4 inch PSS manufacturing is not interchangeable, time is needed before the switch in production. However, demands for 2 inch PSS have continued to lead to global supply shortages that is anticipated to extend into June and July.
Due to the PSS shortage, the sapphire industry is preparing a price uptick, but PSS manufacturers are unwilling to take the lead in raising prices.
