Taiwan-based LED chip giant Epistar’s revenue in August stood at NTD 2.332 billion (USD 77.59 million), with a rise of 3.7% MoM (5.3% YoY). It has hit a new high in the past 28 months. The company explained the fully-utilized capacity for blue LED manufacturing and the AlInGaP demand driver from the horticultural lighting market accounted for the growth, despite an overall slide of 0.3% YoY in the consolidated revenue of 2017 (accumulated until the end of August).

Top Taiwanese LED manufacturer Epistar’s revenue made a turnaround in 2Q17. After the improvement of its product assortment, the capacity of EPISTAR’s blue light LED in Q3 is full. The utilization rate of four-element LED stays above 80%. With the support of AlInGaP LED’s demand in markets such as automotive lighting and security control, the capacity of Epistar will be almost fully-utilized until Q4. The price of its blue LED is likely to remain stable. Epistar doesn’t appear to be involved in the price war in China considering Chinese manufacturers tend to expand capacity to manufacture their own blue LEDs. 

The LED industry had quite a peaceful time in 1H17. Apart from a few M&As, the most-discussed technology would be Micro LED. Lots of high-tech giants worldwide have already started a series of R&D and the number of participants is getting bigger. The supply chain of Micro LED, although of limited mature technologies, is slowly shaping up. Here, LEDinside lists out major events and milestones made on the path of developing Micro LED in the first half of 2017.

Within the LED lighting industry, more and more companies shifted their focuses to niche markets and specialty lighting to get away from bitter price wars in the general lighting market. Sectors such as horticultural lighting, healthcare, shipping, and intelligent lighting began to witness the emergence of LED products, and it also seemed a definite trend to replace traditional low-price LED tubes with advanced high efficient ones. As for the decorative lighting market where consumes a massive amount of LEDs, it also experienced a series of changes when LED technology gradually takes hold. In light of the fact that it has earned a favourable reception among traders, distributors, and lighting designers, LED filament soon became considerably desirable to replace conventional low wattage LED bulbs and LED candle bulbs producing high thermal runaway. Accordingly, in recent years, LED filament has been a great hit in the market.

Epistar on 21st June announced its financial results, reporting a fully utilized capacity of blue LED as well as a sustained production of AlInGaP LED despite subtle growth in both the output of light sources and the orders for LED backlighting and little possibility to raise prices of its products. The company estimated a 15% QoQ rise that could possibly push up 2Q17’s revenue close to the number in 2Q16. Epistar also expected a decent financial performance in 3Q17 supported by the chip production for LED lighting, AlInGaP LED and infrared LED.

In the ever-growing LED market, automotive LEDs are witnessing a rapid development. This is driven by various regulations enforced by governments around the world for fuel-efficient gasoline vehicles. In addition, manufacturers of hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles have increasingly embraced new technologies. Also, with substantial development in automotive electronics, many LED manufacturers are now trying to gain their positions in this market.

The world LED lighting market has passed into the maturity stage, of which the saturation makes a few segments struggle. According to stats from LEDinside, a division of market research company TrendForce, the world LED lighting market reached a value of USD 29.6 billion in 2016 and by 2017 the number will have possibly amounted to USD 33.1 billion, suggesting more room for the penetration rate of LED lighting, currently at 52% and continually to grow. However, price wars and technology competitions that run in the low-end market rankle international LED manufacturers. Hence, as part of Tier 1 companies, fairly competitive in finance and technology, tend to focus on high efficient LED lighting and other niche markets.

Epistar Corporation, a leading innovator and manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting technologies, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Lowe’s Companies, Inc. and Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC (collectively “Lowe’s”) in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on April 28, 2017. The complaint asserts that Kichler Lighting’s LED filament bulbs and Utilitech’s LED bulbs sold by Lowe’s infringe several Epistar patents and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products.

Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar Tuesday reported financial results for both the fourth quarter and the year ended December 31, 2016. Although net loss for the year widened, operating profit margin for the last quarter jump to 6.7%, the highest in nine quarters. The gain is significant considering the number was -33.14% in 4Q15.

Early in May, Luxlite, Epistar's sole distributor in China, has sent out an announcement of price adjustment, listing a number of reasons for price increase, including continuingly increased raw materials and manpower costs.  （Official announcements from Luxlite, Smalit and Rishang regarding the rise of LED package price） Chinese LED chips manufacturers San’an Opto and HC Semitek followed suit Epistar’s lead in raising LED chip prices, which was considered as an early sign of recovery from the heated price war since 2014. Major...

There has been stable growth in the global LED lighting market supply chain and distribution channels, the plateaued LED backlight market has ushered surging innovative LED applications in the market. How has soaring demands in new LED applications affected Taiwanese LED manufacturer’s Epistar’s LED shipments?

Epistar announced that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against Adamax d/b/a Newhouse Lighting (“Adamax”) pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, for infringement of Epistar’s light-emitting diode (“LED”) filament patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,346,771, 7,489,068, 7,560,738, 8,240,881, 8,344,353, 8,791,467, 9,065,022). 

At LEDforum 2016 hosted by LEDinside in late September in Taipei, Taiwan, industry insiders were all focused on innovative technologies including Quantum Dot (QD), Micro-LEDs and other new technologies. Saturation in the LED backlight market, while the LED lighting market might have high market potential, but requires specialization has ushered development of new applications in the LED industry. Some of these include small-pitch LED displays for billboards, large indoor displays, automotive LEDs, non-visible LED light (UV and IR applications), grow lights and other important emerging applications. Future technology developments include integrating QD technology with micro-LEDs to optimize LED performance.

EPISTAR announced it signed a license agreement with Super Trend Lighting (Group) Ltd. (“SUPERTREND”) to use Epistar’s filament patents in its products. Epistar holds key intellectual property regarding the LED filament technology used in making LED filament bulbs. The LED filament patents relate to, among other things, LED filament structure(s), and light-emitting product(s) using LED filament(s). This patent portfolio covers Taiwan, China, United States, Europe and other territories.

Rising VR, security and small pitch LED display demands has led to severe shortage in AlInGaP LEDs, reported Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times.

Epistar, a leading innovator and manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting technologies, filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Adamax Inc.(d/b/a Newhouse Lighting) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on August 30, 2016. The complaint asserts that Newhouse Lighting products and technology infringe six Epistar patents and seeks injunctive relief to halt the further sale of the infringing Newhouse Lighting products.

Top LED chip manufacturer Epistar’s shipment volume rose in second quarter, and the company revenue climbed up on the back of easing price falls, but still faces financial challenges ahead, reported Taiwanese media Money DJ.com.

Veeco Instruments announced that Epistar has ordered multiple TurboDisc® EPIK™700 Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems for the production of light emitting diodes (LEDs).  The Veeco systems will be used to meet demand for various applications.  

Samsung’s latest flagship phone Note 7 iris recognition features created a new buzz in the market, as the new phone’s IR modules used for optical recognition is expected to benefit IR LED manufacturers, such as Epistar and High Power Lighting, reported UDN.

Soaring demands for AlInGaN LEDs for virtual reality (VR) and security applications caused severe chip shortages for Epistar, reported Taiwanese media Commercial Times.

Affected by oversupply issues in the LED industry, leading Taiwanese LED EPI-wafer manufacturer Epistar (the company) lowered production costs by adjusting its production capacity and integrating subsidiaries FOREPI and Huga Optic resources, reported Taiwan media Apple Daily.

The global LED industry benefited from emerging lighting market demands, but the LED backlight industry has entered a mature plateau phase. Price wars intensified in mainstream LED chip and application sectors, turning into an overtly competitive red sea market. In 2015, global LED market value declined for the first time by 3% to US $14.33 billion, according to statistics compiled by LEDinside, a research division of Taipei-based market research institute TrendForce.

Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar revenue in June 2016 was down 2.3% to NT $2.11 billion (US $65.87 million) compared to a month earlier, due to inventory take during the end of second quarter, according to a MoneyDJ report.

Leaders in the LED industry have been supportive of Epistar’s decision to scale down production capacity, the Taiwanese company has frozen nearly a quarter of its production capacity and initiated the largest scale down since its founding, reported China Times. This move could lower increasing cost pressures from depreciating old equipment, but at several large manufacturers shareholder meeting last week, Everlight Chairman Robert Yeh and Unity Opto’s Chairman Alpha Wu supported Epistar’s move, and from a chip buyer perspective announced chip prices had reached rock bottom.

Epistar announced it will be raising certain LED chip costs by 15% in mid- May 2016, which excited certain media and investors, who projected LED chip prices would soar. There is nothing to support this theory, though. More than a month has gone by, and none of the other manufacturers have raised prices. A closer inspection raises questions on the LED chip pricing strategy, and whether it will reach the aim of reducing the company’s revenue losses requires further observations, however, the company is at risk of losing clients.

Epistar, a leading Taiwanese LED chip maker, is to be the first manufacturer that raise the price of heavily-oversupplied InGaN LEDs. The company plans to raise up to 15% of the price in order to profit.

Taiwanese LED EPI-wafer manufacturer Epistar has vehemently denied claims made by local media Apple Daily that it had laid off more than 100 employees following the shut down of its subsidiary FOREPI’s EPI-wafer fab.

The LED display market preference in 2015 were small pitch LED displays, and high definition products. These products that have been under the industry spotlight last year continued to show strong growth this year, especially in China. Small pitch LED displays is gaining traction in other regional markets including Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. Emerging markets, such as Middle East and South America where the 2016 Olympics will be hosted in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, also witnessed soaring growth for small pitch LED displays. To learn more about display technology advancements and trend analyses, LEDinside spoke to international and Taiwanese LED chip manufacturers and other related industry players.

The board of Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar decided to invite strategic partners through Global Depository Receipts (GDR) or private equity (PE). Epistar locates at the upstream in the industry supply chain and the partnership with application clients secures the company’s oversea exit, said Epistar Spokesman RiderChang. In other words, the company intends to partner with the clients of their client through stake investment. The company’s shareholder’s meeting is to be launched on June 17, 2016. The stake released by two...

Several notable trends LEDinside observed at Taiwan International Lighting Show (TILS) 2016, which took place at Nangang Exhibition Hall from April 12-16, 2016 in Taipei, was more manufacturers showcasing filament LED bulbs, smart lighting products, and an emphasis on reducing glare in luminaire designs.