Sapphire long crystal high-margin solar wafer plant rushed to grab

The sapphire crystal rod (crystal growth) and substrate plant have high margins and high EPS advantages, causing large-scale electronics groups to invest in succession. Since the materials are silicon wafers, the solar energy upstream plant is the most active, including the monolithic crystal unite Sapphire Technology and Hisashi Semiconductor.

At present, the upstream LED crystal rods mostly rely on imports. The international manufacturers include Rubicon, Monocrystal, Kyocera and so on. In addition to the new crystal diamonds in China, they also include Taifeng Optoelectronics, Shangzhi, Jiajing, and Silian Optoelectronics, which are owned by Yuefeng. Crystal, combined crystal long crystal is mainly for their own use.

As for the downstream sapphire substrate factory, the current operation mode of the domestic substrate plant can be roughly divided into two modes. The combined crystal, Sino-American crystal (will be divided into Sapphire Technology) is from the long crystal, slicing, grinding, polishing to patterning sapphire Consistently vertically integrated vendors; Mega, Zhaoyuan, and Jingmei are slice-based, and crystal rods are either purchased externally or supplied by strategic manufacturers, such as Changjing Xinxin.

The profit of crystal rods and substrates is also very different. Last year, the price of crystal rods was high and the price was high. The gross profit rate of crystal rod maker Rubicon was over 50%. The gross profit margin of Xinjing diamonds also reached 40% at the end of last year. The gross profit rate in the first quarter It is still as high as 60% or more; while the substrate factory is subject to the high-priced raw material of the crystal rod, although it can be partially passed on to the customer's LED crystal grain plant, some parts still need to be absorbed by themselves. Zhaoyuan, the gross margin of about 25-35% of the standard, far less than the crystal rod factory.

The high-margin sapphire crystal rods are sourced from the same wafers as solar energy, thus leading solar energy upstream manufacturers to invest in them successively. For example, the Taifeng Group's Yuefeng will cut its sapphire growth business into an independent group in October last year. Sino-U.S. crystal-cut sapphire growth business established Sapphire Technology and announced that it will expand its production capacity three times within three years. Dazhi Group’s Shangzhi Semiconductor also began mass production of crystal bars last year. This year, it will expand production capacity by 7.9 billion yuan. The production capacity of sapphire crystal rods has exceeded 1 times. The solar wafer factory, Hejing, cut the sapphire business into Hejing Optoelectronics in 2007, and the domestic Chang Jing Wuxiong was officially listed.

Recently, the downstream LED dies strongly demanded price cuts. The price of sapphire substrates declined in the second quarter. Chinese, South Korean and other large companies such as China LDK, TrinaSolar and South Korea’s OCI have successively declared their commitment to the production of sapphire crystal bars or substrates. High gross profit, positive development in the area of ​​crystal rods.