China-based LED packaging service provider MLS has extended production to own-brand LED lighting and began to sell LED light bulbs and tubes in the US market in 2014, and expects LED lighting revenues from the US in 2015 to grow on year by 5-10 fold, according to the company.
MLS, Opple Lighting and NVC Lighting Technology are currently the three largest China-based LED lighting vendors. MLS posted consolidated revenues of CNY4.0 billion (US$649 million) in 2014 and over 80% came from LED packaging services, and the remaining from LED lighting, the company said.
MLS will expand overall production capacity by 30-50% in 2015 and expects 2015 consolidated revenues to increase on year by at least 30%, the company indicated. MLS will keep expanding monthly LED packaging capacity from 24 billion LED chips currently by one billion chips a month on average in 2015, and expects monthly shipments of LED light bulbs and tubes to rise from 15-18 million units at present to over 20 million units, the company said.
MLS will start to tap the Middle East and Southeast Asia markets in 2015, the company said.
Out of consideration of LED patents, MLS adopts LED chips produced by Taiwan-based Epistar in China for its LED lighting products for sale in the US and Taiwan. Epistar supplies about 30% of its LED chip demand, MLS indicated. Consequently, MLS-orders occupy 30-50% of Epistar's LED chip production capacity in China.
