LED upstream key material PSS is in short supply with demands unable to be met. With supply unable to meet demands from LED manufacturers last year, production capacity is lacking by 50 percent, according to Economic Daily News. This had lead to a rise in price of around 5 percent for sapphire ingot, polished wafers, and PSS in March. Manufacturers including Crystalwise, Ridgetech, Aceplux Optotech, and Crystal Applied Technology are anticipated to benefit. PSS industry insiders are optimistic towards March operations.

The newest addition to the Apple family, the iPhone 5S/5C will be launched later this month. The addition of fingerprint recognition technology incorporating sapphire crystal has greatly benefitted substrate manufacturers. Crystal Applied Technology hit record highs with their August revenue at NT$194 million (US$6.5 million) with a monthly growth of 26.79 percent. Crystalwise Technology revenue for August was NT$170 million, an increase of 3.6 percent.

In the first six month of 2010, sapphire substrate supplier Crystal Applied Technology’s EPS was only NT$1.50 but the figure increased substantially to NT$11.75 at the end of November. The company noted the strong result benefitted from the increasing prices for sapphire crystals, as well as increased capacity in 2Q10.