According to LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, the February revenues of Taiwanese listed LED manufacturers totaled NT$ 6.92 billion (MoM+14.1%, YoY-4.5%). Due to the inventory stocking in the backlight market and increasing bidding projects in the lighting market, LEDinside expects the high demand to persist well into April, 2012. LED Backlight Market Outlook Korean panel makers launched new LED TVs in 2012, which stimulated the demand and in turn increased LED companies’ utilization rates. As a result, LED makers’ revenues...

Samsung is reported to stop production of CCFL LCD TV, which uses fluorescent lamp as the TV backlight, and will only manufacture LED TV. Since it entering the market in 2009, LED TV has been the high-end choice in the TV market, but its high cost prevents its popularity from further increasing. In a nod to it, Samsung will be actively pushing its direct-type LED TV in 2012 in the hope of increasing LED TV’s penetration rate.   Korean New LED TV Price  on Par With CCFL TV, LED Penetration Rate to Exceed 70% in 201...

According to LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, the revenues of Taiwanese listed LED manufacturers totaled NT$ 6.54 billion (MoM-11.99%, YoY-19.6%). In retrospect, the under performing peak season in 2011 and the dull demand made the LED chip and package manufacturers fail to reproduce the booming 1H11 revenue growth in 2H11. At present, given the inventory pressure, many LED makers are actively seeking joint ventures and improving their product quality to create greater product differentiation. LEDinside believes that the gloomy economic climate will ...

LEDinside, the LED research division of TrendForce, indicates that affected by the month-end inventory adjustment and the dreary end-market demand, most LED manufacturers’ revenues underwent setbacks, averaging between 10% and 15%. According to LEDinside, despite the low utilization rates of LED companies, the LED chip supply in 2011 still amounted to 174 billion units while the chip demand was merely 129 billion units, with a 35% oversupply. As a result, most LED manufacturers faced considerable inventory pressure in 2H11. Looking towards 2012, given t...

According to LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, the revenues of Taiwanese listed LED manufacturers totaled NT$ 7.434 billion (MoM-3.41%, YoY-11.3%). Most companies have made lowering their inventory levels the first priority. LEDinside’s survey finds that a lot of manufacturers’ days sales of inventory (DSI) are over three months. In light of the stagnant outlook, Taiwanese makers have been conservative about their expansion plans, and in the meantime aggressively increase their capacities of lighting product application. Aside from Taiwanese makers, global big names also put more accent on the lighting market. Eying the great potential of Japanese and Chinese markets, Nichia expanded its capacity with its capital expenditures in 2011 reaching US$ 900 million. Moreover, Panasonic plans to merge Panasonic Electric Works with Panasonic Lighting into a new lighting business unit in January, 2012 and launch 70 types of LED light bulbs and 3300 types of LED lighting fixture products in 2012. It is evident that gaining market share in the lighting market will give manufacturers edges over other competitors.

The Chinese government recently announced a time frame for the phasing-out of incandescent lamps. China will ban imports and sales of 100W and higher incandescent bulbs starting from October 1, 2012, and ban on 60W and higher incandescent bulbs starting October 1, 2014. October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016 will serve as an evaluation period. Starting on October 1, 2016 the ban will be extended to 15W and higher bulbs, or adjusted according to the results of the evaluation. The policy is expected to save 48 billion kilowatt hours of power per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 48 million tons annually.

In the past, traditional street lamps were primarily HID lamps and mercury lamps. However, due to disadvantages such as lumen decay, high power consumption and short lifespan, traditional light sources are no longer in line with the global energy-saving trend. LED quickly made its way into street lighting due to several factors, including carbon emission reduction policies enforced worldwide and improved luminous efficacy LED light sources (a total luminous efficacy of over 100–130 Lm/W and an application luminous efficacy of over 50 Lm/W), as commercial opportunities presented themselves.  

LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, reports that China has become the largest production base for lighting products, accounting for 70% of the global capacity. According to LEDinside’s survey, China’s average number of monthly exported incandescent lamps, halogen lamps, hot-cathode compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and other lighting devices (including LED light sources) amounted to 667 million pieces, reaching a total value of US$ 1,140 million in 2010. The total export volume of 2010 reached 7.99 billion pieces and the total value hit US$ 13.677 billion, with a 24.2% growth in volume and 34.7% in value compared to 2009.

LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, estimates that the 2010 worldwide lighting market (including traditional and LED luminaires) reached 79.3 billion USD (excluding automotive lighting market). LEDinside estimates that the current global lighting market share in the developed areas, covering Europe and North America, exceeded 50%, with the overall market scale nearing 40 billion USD. On the other hand, while the 2010 Chinese lighting market only reached 12.2 billion USD, accounting for 15.4% of the global market share, the LED lighting demand in China continues to grow due to the stimulated economic growth and infrastructure expansion along with the related government policies, aiming at closing the urban and rural area divides. As the lighting markets in Europe, America, and Japan are on the brink of saturation, only the lighting market in China is still in the expansion. LEDinside projects that the Chinese lighting market share can rise to 18.3% in 2015 with the total Chinese market value reaching 20 billion USD.

Solar power plant project is divided into two main types of technology, one photoelectric conversion, and the other is solar thermal conversion. Concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) technology creates steam and makes solar thermal generators to produce electricity; the principle of optical focus concentrating photovoltaic conversion of solar system (concentrating PV system; CPV) is to use the lens to focus the sun's rays refracted or reflected on the solar cell to generate electricity.

According to a survey conducted by LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, the revenues of listed Taiwanese LED manufacturers amounted to NT$ 8.415 billion (MoM-2.69%, YoY-18.9%) in Aug’11. Due to both end market underperformance and steep drop in the LED price, the demand side has been striving to lower the component inventory levels. However, the impending demand surge triggered by Christmas holiday and the new models of LED backlit TVs will most likely cause the rush-order effect for the backlight market, providing a timely and welcomed break for LED manufacturers.

According to LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, the global market value of high-brightness LED in 2011 is estimated to total USD 9 billion instead of USD 10.6 billion as previously expected, with a mere annual increase of 8%. Contributing factors include: backlight market’s weak demand, drastic plummeting LED’s average selling price, which resulted in over supply in the LED market.

According to LEDinside, the LED research division of TrendForce, the total monthly revenue of Taiwanese LED companies listed on TWSE reached NTD 8.648 billion in July, 2011 (MoM-6.35%, YoY-18.8%). The LED chip manufacturers’ monthly revenue has decreased by 20.5% to NTD 3.95 billion, compared to that of last year (MoM-8.9%; YoY-20.5%). Furthermore, the LED package manufacturers’ monthly revenue has dropped sharply by 17.4% to NTD 4.695 billion, compared to that of last year (MoM-4.1%，YoY-17.4%). The weak demand for end-market applications has compromised the revenues of LED package and chip manufacturers. In addition, affected by the decreases of subsidies from local governments in China, LED chip makers have delayed their equipment installment plans, whose fulfillment will be the key to equipment makers’ revenues in 2H11.

According to a survey conducted by LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, because of the subsidy policies enacted by local governments in 2010, Chinese LED chip makers planned to expand their capacity and increase the amount of MOCVD equipment to target at the prospects of the LED lighting market in 2011. However, affected by the uncertain end-market demand of the LED industry in 2011, the inventory levels of LED products continue to rise. Therefore, LED manufacturers have put their purchases of MOCVD equipment on hold.

According to LEDinside, the LED research division of TrendFroce, the total monthly revenue of Taiwanese LED companies listed on TWSE reached NTD 9.23 billion in June 2011 (MoM-6.17%, YoY-10.9%). The LED chip manufacturers’ monthly revenue has decreased by 6.1% to NTD 4.34 billion, compared with that of last year (MoM-6.2%; YoY-6.1%). Furthermore, the LED package manufacturers’ monthly revenue has sharply dropped by 14.8% to NTD 4.89 billion, compared with that of last year (MoM-6.1%，YoY-14.8%).

The LED research division of TrendForce, LEDinside, indicates that there is no obvious increase in LED production in 2011. Although 2H11 is traditionally the peak season for the LED industry, doubt about oversupply spreads on weak market demand. LEDinside estimates that LED chip supply volume in 2011 is about 100 billion units and demand volume is around 89 billion units; an oversupply ratio reaches 12%. In addition, after LED chip makers’ capacity expansion comes online in 2012, supply will increase rapidly. It is estimated that oversupply ratio will then rise to 21%.

According to LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, the Taiwanese listed LED manufacturers’ revenues in May, 2011 reached NTD 9.96 billion (MoM+5.8%; YoY+8.3%). As for the upstream players of the LED industry, the revenues of Taiwan’s listed LED chip makers in May, 2011 increased 8.3% to NTD 4.63 billion, compared to the same time last year (MoM+5.8%; YoY+8.3%). As for the downstream players of the LED industry, the revenue of Taiwan’s listed LED package makers in May, 2011 dropped 0.8% to NTD 5.33 billion compared to ...

Due to increasing demand for LED lighting in Japan along with appreciation of Japanese yen, Taiwanese LED manufacturers are expected to receive purchase orders from Japan. For instance, OEM manufacturers, such as Delta and Cal-Comp Electronics can immediately benefit from these Japanese orders. Ledtech, China Electric, Unity Opto, and Lite-On Technology are also potential beneficiaries to receive orders. Additionally, the upstream LED manufacturers, including Epistar, Genesis Photonics, and Everlight can also benefit from current market development.

In recent years Chinese mainland LED industry is developing rapidly.LED application has been used in great expansive area, especially in backlighting and lighting fuction. Despite a large scale downstream LED industry manufactures are mostly producing TV-backlighting products. As the result of extra huge scale of China potential LED lighting market, more and more big manufactures which were sensitive to market trend has began to regard the Chinese LED lighting to a “big tasty cake”. In the mean while in recent year the LED lighting cost has been decline...

Based on the statistics of LEDinside, the research division of TrendForce, the revenue of Taiwan listed LED manufacturers in April 2011 has reached NTD 9.62 billion (MoM +3.39%, YoY+6.6%). As can be seen from the chip makers’ revenue, the revenue of listed LED chip makers has increased to NTD 4.37 billion with 8.5% rise compared with last April  (MoM+1.8%; YoY+8.5%). On the other hand, the revenue of listed LED package makers has increased to NTD 5.25 billion, up 5% on yearly base (MoM+2.9%，YoY+5%). Generally speaking, LED backlight sales steadily increased and April revenue remained flat growth. 

Based on the statistic of LEDinside, the research division of TrendForce, the revenue of the listed LED manufacturers in March 2011 has reached NTD 9.34 billion (MoM +27.13%, YoY+13.4%). As can be seen from the chip makers’ revenue, the revenue of listed LED chip makers has increased by 23.7%, compared with that of February 2011, and to NTD 4.294 billion (MoM+23.7%; YoY+19.8%). On the other hand, the revenue of listed LED package makers has increased to NTD 5.047 million (MoM+30.2%，YoY+8.4%). Generally speaking, since the second season is the traditionally peak season for the LED industry, and there is an increase in backlight inventory, the revenue has dramatically increased in March. 

Asia is the production core of the global LED industry. Based on LEDinside’s survey, Japan ranked No. 1 in LED package revenue by region, accounting for 29% in market share.

According to LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, sales revenues of public listed LED manufacturers in Taiwan totaled NT$7.347 billion(MoM-9.22%，YoY+18.1%) in February, 2011. Sales revenues of upstream chip manufacturers reached NT$3.471 billion(MoM-7.9%; YoY+23%) in February, 2011, up 23% compared to the same month of 2010. As for Taiwanese downstream LED package manufacturers, suffering from fewer working days in February, sales revenues reached NT$3.876 billion(MoM-10.3%，YoY+14%) , down 9.22% on month, but up 18.1% compared to the same month of 2010.

According to the survey conducted by research divisions of TrendForce on information technology (IT) supply chain, the earthquake which struck northeast Japan on March 11th not only seriously influences information supply chain, but also becomes an obstacle to the economic resurgence in Japan. It is expected that it will decrease the growth of other economies in the short term.

Based on the analysis and statistics of LEDinside, which is a research division under TrendForce, International LED major manufacturers successively released their 4Q10 financial reports. In terms of upstream equipment suppliers, the LED & Solar revenue of Veeco set the highest quarterly record of USD 258 million. Over 20 customers, such Shanghai Epilight, placed the purchase orders for lighting application. However, the planned shipment of 12-20 new MOCVD products「MaxBright」are not included in the Q1 financial statement. Besides, the revenue-accounting delay is expected to greatly affect the result of Q1 revenue. However, since the fund-subsidy policy launched by Chinese government, LED enterprises keep on production expansions. The orders of Korean customers are expected to surge in backlight and lighting markets in Q2 and Q3. Moreover, it is forecasted that the MOCVD orders for K465i and MaxBright will also increase in the markets of Europe, USA, Japan and Taiwan. To sum up, Veeco is still optimistic about market quotations in the first half of 2011.

According to the analysis and statistics of LEDinside, a research division under TrendForce, the total revenues of listed Taiwan LED manufacturers was up to NTD 8.09 billion in January 2011(MoM-2.04%，YoY+15.9%). Regarding upstream chip manufacturers, these figures reached NTD 3.77 billion in January 2011, (MoM-0.7%; YoY+20.7%). The Chip LEDX moved back at 4,472 points, while Package LEDX rose to 5,001 points, showing a moderate uptrend.

Outlook of LED Industry Trend in 2011   Brief Review of 2010 LED Industry Development – LED Manufacturers Celebrated a Fruitful Year 2010 was a fruitful year for LED manufacturers. Not only did manufacturers overcome the gloomy market condition in 2009, most managed to grow their revenues at an exponential rate due to the robust demand for large-size LED backlighting.

Since iPad, Apple’s best selling product, led a trend of Tablet PCs, other manufacturers have accelerated the development and launch of Tablet PCs. LEDinside, a research division under TrendForce, indicated that LED application requirement for Tablet PC has improved, and average brightness specification has increased by over 20 percent compared to before. Additionally, LED shipment grew, too. It is estimated that LED shipment will rise to 1.3 billion in 2011 from 380 million in 2010, around 3.5 times in growth rate.

LED Industry Faces Slack Season in the Short Term and LEDinside Forecasts that Growth Momentum will Rebound after 1Q11

Chinese Government Publishes the Demonstration Project Bid Award list of Solid State Lighting Applications, Raising Expectations for Its LED Domestic Market The Chinese central government has recently held a large-scale open bidding for LED lighting products. The National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Housing, and Urban-Rural Development Commission and Ministry of Transport conducted the tender evaluation together and published the bid award list on November 24th, 2010.