Taiwan-based sapphire substrate manufacturer Alphaxtal said it estimates that substrate prices will increase throughout June. 2-inch substrates were around US$9 on average during May but are expected to rise due to a shortage of patterned sapphire substrates (PSSs). The shortage is due to an increase in sapphire substrate shipments in May as a result of increasing LED lighting demand. LED industry sources said this may cause sapphire substrates to increase by 10% to around US$10 in the third quarter.
 
LED substrate manufacturers have largely reported increased revenues during May with Alphaxtal seeing NT$141 million (US$4.7 million) and Crystal Technology NT$162 million.
 
Sources added that manufacturers are looking to expand PSS production since most of them are already running at full production capacity with 450,000 units a month. However, Alphaxtal said it will not take such measures in order to avoid oversupply and instead will focus on producing more large-sized substrates.