China's Ministry of Science and Technology Is Seeking Public Opinions

China's Ministry of Science and Technology is seeking public opinions on the recently revised goals set for the semiconductor lighting technology development under the 12th Five-Year Plan. Compared with the solid state lighting policies announced previously, many changes have been made, such as increasing the target percentage of LED chips made in China from 70% to 80%, white LED lighting efficiency from 150lm/W to 150-200lm/W, percentage of LED lightings among total lighting products from 20% to 30%, and employment of the industry from one million to two million workers. There are some new targets laid down in the latest revision of the policies such as lowering the cost of white LED lightings to one-fifth of the current cost by 2015, increasing LED and OLED lighting fixture brightness efficiency to 130lm/W and 80lm/W respectively, and increasing the number of core technology patents to 300. These targets are clear indicators of China's optimism towards the country's LED lighting industry. But the short term outlook for the LED industry remains unclear. Sapphire substrate makers' cautiousness is an indication. The four largest sapphire firms in the world have a global market share around 70%, according to Digitimes Research findings. Some South Korea- and China-based newcomers have been trying to enter the market but have not been able to show significant effects. The big sapphire firms have no plan for capacity expansions in 2012, except for South Korea-based STC. The main reason is that the firms believe price increase of sapphire substrates in second-half 2012 is unlikely to occur and capacity utilization rates have not been reaching full potential. But STC, with the help of the government, its accumulated crystal growing furnace will reach 288 units in 2012. This is because the government in South Korea has been trying to increase the percentage of domestic-made sapphire ingots. Although the price of sapphire substrates for LED products is unlikely to increase in 2012, the price of patterned sapphire substrates has been predicted to show increases in second-half 2012. Patterned sapphire substrates has the ability to effectively increase brightness efficiencies of LED components, hence demand for such products from LED chipmakers has been growing. Source: DIGITIMES