There was a lot of activity in Digitimes last year about Taiwanese activity in sapphire. Multiple suppliers in China also.
The challenge there is managing 3 or 4 or 5 suppliers and maintaining quality. That can be a real challenge. I believe that the total capacity is available but may require a lot of reallocation. Given Apples mode of operation it is unlikely that all suppliers would jump at an Apple offer.
If the 165 Kg boules give acceptable yield maybe some pricing arrangement could be worked out where the 165 Kg screens may be over the target price and the 265 Kg are under the target price.
I do not see any way that 2000 systems could be moved and made operational in less than 5 or 6 months....and that is a stretch.
Damn the torpedos, cost is not an issue, full speed ahead!!!
The infrastructure alone is daunting....cooling water and treatment, power distribution, process gas, backup power......that is really critical as demonstrated by Mesa.
Backup power needs a huge battery bank with inverters to run the plant for several minutes while the standby generators come up to speed. That is a lot of power given that these systems run at around 2100 C and have a lot of mass to keep at a steady temp.
The mezzanines that the systems go into need to be in place to receive them when they arrive. Has ground been broken for this new Foxconn plant yet?
