GT Advanced Technologies Inc Bankruptcy Leads To Drop In Crystal Materials Equipment Suppliers

Sapphire and other crystal materials suppliers' shares declined in the wake of a Chapter 11 filing Monday by GT Advanced Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: GTAT).

GT said in its recent quarterly filing in July that its markets are faced with "significant oversupply."

Rubicon Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) fell more than 11 percent recently.
Suntech Power Holdings Co. (OTC: STPFQ) dropped 7 percent and Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) declined more than 5 percent.

GT sells mainly to customers that manufacture polysilicon and silicon ingot, used in solar wafers and cells, and sapphire boules, used for making, among other things, LED wafers.

GT signed a 2013 agreement with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to supply sapphire material. But its polysilicon equipment segment accounted for 73 percent of its 2013 revenue of $299 million. Its sapphire segment amounted to 11 percent of revenue.

GT's Apple agreement has caused a shift in its sapphire business from an equipment supplier to a material supplier.

GT has spent heavily to ramp up sapphire production at a facility in Mesa, Arizona, and had $85 million in cash at September 29, down from $333 million at the end of the second quarter.

The company warned in July it will "continue to incur negative margins at this facility until we are able to achieve volume manufacturing at our target cost structure. We cannot guarantee that the Mesa facility will operate profitably in the near term, or at all."

GT traded recently at $1.12 per share, down 89 percent.