By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-08 09:51:50 | Updated at 2026-09-08 11:07:17
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AXT Inc., a California-headquartered semiconductor materials company, said in an Aug. 13 quarterly filing that it could not estimate when it would receive Chinese export permits needed to resume shipments of indium-phosphide wafer substrates to U.S. customers.
AXT called export permits for indium phosphide, or InP, its “most significant challenge” and said some customer orders remained backlogged while applications awaited approval.
InP substrates are used to make lasers, receivers, and high-speed photodetectors for fiber-optic communications and data center networks.
IQE Chief Executive Jutta Meier separately described access to InP substrates as an emerging industry supply risk, according to Bloomberg on Sept. 7.
AXT and IQE work at different stages of the supply chain. AXT makes the underlying wafer substrates, while IQE works further downstream, growing specialized semiconductor layers on substrates to make epitaxial wafers.
IQE said in its Sept. 7 interim results that strong InP demand was driving higher production volumes. It plans to convert existing equipment during the second half of 2026 to add InP capacity for AI and data-center markets.
Chinese Export Controls
Beijing placed indium phosphide and several related materials and technologies under export controls on Feb. 4, 2025. Exporters must obtain licenses before shipping covered products overseas.
AXT is headquartered in Fremont, Northern California, but manufactures all of its wafer substrates in China through subsidiaries and joint ventures.
The company said China opened an application portal for InP exports in March 2025 and that it immediately began applying for permits.
On June 11, 2025, an AXT subsidiary received its first permits allowing shipments to resume for certain customers in Europe and Japan. AXT later received additional permits.
As of its Aug. 13 filing, however, the company still could not estimate when it would receive the approvals needed to resume shipments to U.S. customers.
In a Jan. 8 statement, AXT lowered its fourth-quarter 2025 revenue outlook, saying China’s Ministry of Commerce had issued fewer InP export permits than the company expected. As a result, the company said it was unable to fill more customer orders in December.
Rivals Produce Outside China
AXT identifies JX Advanced Metals and Sumitomo Electric as competitors in the InP-substrate market. Both manufacture InP substrates in Japan. Freiberger Compound Materials manufactures InP substrates in Germany.
JX said in June that it plans to invest up to 120 billion yen (about $780 million) to expand its InP business in Japan. The company said the investment could raise production capacity to roughly seven to 10 times its fiscal 2025 level.
Public disclosures reviewed by The Epoch Times do not identify where JX, Sumitomo, or Freiberger obtain the indium used in their InP production.
Japan Customs data show South Korea and Taiwan were Japan’s largest suppliers in a broader customs category covering indium in unwrought form, waste and scrap, and powders. China accounted for about 3 percent of imports in the category in 2024, 8 percent in 2025, and about 9 percent in the latest 2026 data reviewed.
German trade data show Belgium was one source for unwrought indium and indium powder. Germany’s total imports exceeded the Belgian shipments. The portal said the data from China exports was not available.
US Imports From China Drop
Direct U.S. imports of unwrought indium and indium powders from China fell sharply from 2024 to 2025, the year Beijing imposed its indium-related export controls.
The United States imported 52,056 kilograms from China in 2024, about 24 percent of total U.S. imports in the category. That fell to 2,033 kilograms, about 1 percent, in 2025.
Through July 2026, China supplied 2,113 kilograms, about 2 percent of the U.S. total. South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Canada supplied most U.S. imports in the category during the first seven months of the year.
Those figures cover unwrought indium and powders, not the specialized InP wafer substrates covered by AXT’s export-permit applications.
US Companies Reserve AXT Capacity
Even as U.S. raw-indium imports from China have fallen, two American photonics companies have committed substantial funds to reserve future InP capacity from AXT.
Pennsylvania-based Coherent Corp. entered a three-year agreement with AXT in June for 6-inch InP wafer substrates. Coherent agreed to make a $22.29 million prepayment as AXT expands production capacity at its Beijing facility from 2026 through 2028.
The agreement lists Chinese export permits among the risks the companies are to review.
In July, AXT entered a six-year capacity-reservation agreement with Lumentum Operations LLC, a subsidiary of San Jose, California-based Lumentum Holdings Inc. Lumentum agreed to an initial $43.5 million deposit.
The filings do not identify the companies’ other InP suppliers or where wafers supplied under the AXT agreements will ultimately be delivered.
IQE, AXT, Coherent, JX Advanced Metals, Sumitomo Electric, and Freiberger Compound Materials did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
