As LED lighting is expected to boom, firms have been looking into adopting automated production. Nan Ya Photonics, a Taiwan-based joint venture between LED chipmaker Epistar and the Formosa Plastics Group, announced at the beginning of 2012 plans to adopt a completely automated process for the firm's LED light bulb production lines. Many firms, at the time, believed semi-automated processes were more cost effective.
According to Biing-Jye Lee, chairman of Epistar and one of the major shareholders of Nan Ya Photonics, automated processes show Nan Ya's determination to develop LED lighting applications, hence the firm decided to build production lines before seeking customers. Lee added that even though LED lighting product designs will continue to change, the production lines will be adjusted as well. If the industry does not develop automated processes, it will be hard for the price of LED lighting to decrease rapidly. Furthermore, Lee stated, it is unlikely that firms without automated processes will be able to obtain large orders.
Taiwan-based LED packaging house Unity Opto has noted that despite weak demand for LED backlight products in the fourth quarter of 2012, lighting shipments continued to be around 200,000 units. The firm predicts demand LED packaging for lighting will likely maintain at 200,000 units in the first quarter of 2013.
Unity Opto added that with effective cost controls and standardization, shipments of LED lighting packaging will likely increase to 400,000 units in the second quarter of 2013.
According to the firm, the sudden surge of production in a single month was due to its automated processes. Unity Opto noted that demand for high-end customized LED lighting will continue to rise in 2013. In addition, the expansion of automated production for LED light bulbs means the segment is moving toward greater commercialization. The firm stated that despite the fact that LED light bulb prices are likely to decrease 20-30% in 2013, costs will also decrease by the same magnitude. Sales of LED lighting are expected to account around 30% in 2013, said Unity Opto.
Differing from Unity Opto's strategy to increase the production of LED light bulbs, LED packaging house Everlight hopes to strengthen the development of own-brand lighting and the capture the business opportunity of special lighting. Robert Yeh, chairman of Everlight, believes the global LED lighting output will reach US$15 billion and penetration rate will increase to 25% in 2013, mainly from growth of corporate lighting and street lamps. Recently, demand in Europe has been relatively weak due to the financial crisis but demand in the US has been strong. In addition, Yeh believes Asia will become the world's largest lighting market in 2013, accounting for 39% of global market share.
Lextar, the LED subsidiary of AU Optronics (AUO), pointed out that the LED lighting market has been maturing and customers have been more focused more on brightness quality, causing demand for high-power chip on board (COB) products to grow significantly.
According to statistics, the penetration rate of LED light bulbs in the entire light bulb market was 17% in 2012. The penetration rate of LED light bulbs is expected to reach 59% in 2016.
