Orders of LED backlight products will likely be strong throughout October-November. Although growth of LED lighting has been slowing down, LED firms are optimistic that the LED lighting market will see significant growth in 2013.
LED backlights' penetration in monitors and TVs in 2012 is estimated at 65-70% and likely more than 80% in 2013. Government subsidies in China and aggressive introduction of direct-lit LED TVs in 2012 have been driving up demand for TV-use LED backlight units (BLUs) rapidly. LED chipmakers have been seeing rising shipments since the end of the first quarter.
Despite the fact that revenues from LED lighting products have not been as strong as expected, LED chipmaker Epistar noted that tier-one firms have been able to reach performance and price ratio of 700lm/US$. This figure is much higher than industry expectation and the firm's revenues from LED lighting are likely to account for 30-40% of total revenues in 2013, said Epistar.
Formosa Epitaxy, a Taiwan-based LED chipmaker, added that the percentage of LED lighting revenues have been less than 30% in the first three quarters of 2012 and in the third quarter, with rising demand for backlight products, some capacity has been transferred from lighting to backlight products. Although revenues from LED lighting is likely to grow in the fourth quarter, the percentage of LED lighting revenues in 2012 is likely to be around 20-30% of total revenues.
Genesis Photonics indicated that order visibility for LED BLUs is clear to November. The firm is optimistic about demand growth for LED lighting and plans to downward integrate from chips to light engines. The integrated product will begin mass production in the second quarter of 2013. Genesis expects LED lighting revenues to account for 40% of total revenues in 2013.
LED packaging house Unity Opto believes in 2013, the price of LED lighting will be lower and brightness efficiency will increase, which will help commercialization. The firm expects LED lighting revenues to account for 20-25% of total sales in 2013.
Lextar, the LED subsidiary of AU Optronics (AUO), expects LED lighting to become the mainstream in industrial applications in 2014.
