As the total LED production capacity in China has significantly exceeded demand due to excessive investment over the past three years, the China government is expected to promote integration or mergers for less competitive LED makers to reduce the impact of oversupply, industry sources in Taiwan cited China-based makers as indicating.
China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has announced Planning for Development of Semiconductor Lighting and Energy-saving Industries, and one of the goals is development of 10-15 leading enterprises that have core technologies, proprietary know-how, own brands and international competitiveness, signaling the China government's intention to integrate LED makers, the sources said.
The plans aim to decrease the proportion of lighting sources for 60W and above incandescent bulbs to less than 10% in 2015, energy-saving lamps to 70%, and LED lighting to over 20%. In addition, LED is intended to account for more than 70% of panel backlight units, and over 80% of landscape lighting products in 2015, the sources noted. The promotion of LED lighting and energy saving is expected to reduce China's power consumption by 60 billion kWh a year, equivalent to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 60 million tons.
Investment in LED production in China in 2012 totaled CNY100.3 billion (US$15.9 billion), decreasing 48% from 2011, and there were 138 projects each with an investment of over CNY100 million, the sources indicated. The proportion of total investment amount for LED epitaxial wafer production dropped from 46% in 2011 to 10% in 2012 while that for LED applications rose from 21% to 53% of which CNY45 billion (44.9%) was in LED lighting, the sources said. Of the total additional investment in 2012, CNY81.8 billion or 81.6% came from China-based enterprises or investors, while complete foreign investment totaled only CNY2.9 billion (2.9%).
