LED epitaxial wafer and chipmaker as well as LED packaging service provider Lextar Electronics have received orders for LED light tubes with urgent shipments, according to the company.
LED chip prices began to slip in the third quarter of 2014 due to users' overbooking and high inventory levels, Lextar said. However, the urgent orders for LED light tubes imply that large inventories have been reduced to normal levels, Lextar indicated.
There will be addition of an estimated 239 MOCVD sets in 2014 and 170 ones in 2015 in China and, due to such a large increase in China-based makers' total production capacity, some of the LED lighting vendors/makers expect a large decrease in LED chip price and thus have reduced deliveries taken from suppliers to wait for price drop, according to market analysts. This has caused overall demand for lighting-use LED chips to turn weak, the analysts said.
Demand for LED chips from LED lighting vendors/makers in 2015 will not fluctuate as in 2014, with the peak expected to occur in July-August and October-December, Lextar indicated.
