In a further move to strengthen its leading position in the market for light-emitting diodes (LED), Osram today officially opened its LED assembly plant in Wuxi, China. The factory has a floor area of about 100,000 square meters and will employ as many as 2,100 people by 2017. Osram is investing a low three-digit-million euro amount to set up the plant. “With this step, we’re not only expanding our fully loaded backend LED capacities but also boosting our presence in the world’s largest single lighting market,” said Wolfgang Dehen, Chief Executive Officer of Osram Licht AG. “Asia, and particularly China, are key growth drivers for the global lighting and therefore the LED industry.” By opening the new assembly plant in China, Osram pushes LED transition with greater presence in the largest lighting market
China accounts for more than 20 percent of the world’s lighting market and has recorded a fast growth over the past years, particularly in terms of the uptake of LED lighting technologies. The size of the country’s total general illumination market was about €15 billion last year and is expected to rise to about €23 billion by 2019. The market share of semiconductor-based products such as LEDs is forecast to surge to over 60 percent by then compared with only 29 percent in 2013.
With the new LED assembly in Wuxi, Osram will be in an even better position to address that growth. The contracts for the plant’s location were signed in May 2012, with ground-breaking taking place in August that year. “Osram’s new LED assembly plant will play a key role in forging Wuxi’s LED industry value chain, and we believe operation of the plant will help Wuxi to become one of the foremost optoelectronic semiconductor bases in China, and even Asia,” said Wang Quan, Deputy Secretary of Wuxi Party Committee and Mayor of Wuxi.
The factory is planned and run by the Osram Opto Semiconductors business unit. It is the company’s second backend site where LED chips are turned into light sources by assem-bling them into housings. The other site is located in Penang, Malaysia. Osram Opto Semi-conductors also operates chip production sites (frontend) in Regensburg, Germany, as well as in Penang. The Wuxi plant will be capable of an annual output of up to several billion LEDs.
“Our business has always been a global business, and taking into account the size and growth prospects of the Chinese market, Wuxi is a perfect fit for our manufacturing foot-print,” said Aldo Kamper, CEO of Osram Opto Semiconductors. “The plant will help us to further develop our professional know-how and understanding of our customers’ products to create even more added value for them.”
Osram has been active in the opto semiconductor business for more than 40 years and today develops and manufactures LED components for industrial applications, entertain-ment electronics, the automotive sector and general lighting. The product range also in-cludes infrared diodes and semiconductor-based lasers. Osram Opto Semiconductors is headquartered in Regensburg and employs more than 7,000 people worldwide.
About Osram:
Osram of Munich, Germany is one of the two leading light manufacturers in the world. The company's portfolio covers the entire value chain from components – including lamps, electronic control gear and opto semiconduc-tors such as light-emitting diodes (LED) – as well as luminaires, light management systems and lighting solu-tions. Osram has more than 35,000 employees worldwide and generated revenue of almost €5.3 billion in fiscal 2013 (ended September 30). The company's business activities have been focusing on light – and hence on quality of life – for over 100 years. The company was listed on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt and Munich on July 8, 2013 (ISIN: DE000LED4000; WKN: LED 400; Trading symbol: OSR).
