Sapphire silicon wafer supply exceeds the price of LED chips rose

LED chip raw material Sapphire Ingot sapphire wafer prices (SapphireWafer) rose in response to stock shortage in 2009, the current price of sapphire wafers tripled compared to the same period in 2009, compared to the first quarter of 2010 The increase of about 50% also contributed to the increase in the price of finished products such as LED packages. The industry is striving to ensure the price and supply, and the shortage of wafers at the end of 2010 may continue.

According to the industry, the top two global sapphire ingot production, Rubicon of the United States and Monocrystal of Russia, entered the third quarter, both of which increased the price of the product, making the prices of sapphire wafers, LED chips and packages unstable. The sapphire wafer accounts for about 10% of the raw material cost of the LED chip and is a very important raw material for the production of the chip.

In 2008, there was still a surplus of silicon ingots. In 2009, when LED manufacturers competed with each other for production volume, the current situation was in short supply. Rubicon could produce silicon ingots cut into 5 million pieces of 2 sapphire wafers in 2009. It is expected to expand the production capacity to 6.5 million pieces by 2010, but this plan may not be realized until the end of the year. Monocrystal has a capacity of about 4 million units in 2009 and will increase by 500,000 to 4.5 million units by 2010.

The burden on raw materials of South Korean companies such as IljinDisplay and CrystalOn, which ordered wafers from silicon ingots for the two companies mentioned above, has been steadily increasing. In the past, the price premium of sapphire ingots was passed on to wafer manufacturers. LED makers such as Samsung LED and LG Innotek have also recently raised purchase prices with the price of silicon ingots. It is also very rare in South Korea that monitor companies that perform price reduction every quarter to increase raw material prices are fully displaying the shortage of sapphire silicon ingots. The situation of raising prices is quite serious.

The price of LED chips and packages has increased, affecting the downstream industries, such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which have recently raised the proportion of LED TV production. The LED lighting industry is on the spot, even though it is not a backlight module. LED, Samsung LED lighting products provided by distributors, agents, etc. have also been increased by 30% since May. As the price of sapphire wafers increases, the unit price of lighting LEDs also increases.

According to relevant industry officials, the number of MOCVD equipments used in the past was closely related to LED production, but now it is based on the number of silicon ingots and wafers to determine the production rate. Currently, MOCVD investment is increasing to increase production capacity. it's meaningless.