On the ceremony of Guangzhou Branch of Nichia Chemical Industry Corporation, Fukudai Takuya, general manager of Nichia China, said that the establishment of Guangzhou branch can cover the LED industry in the whole Pearl River Delta and more importantly, the fast development of the auto industry of Guangzhou in recent years will be helpful for Nichia to open the target market of vehicle applications.
At present, Nichia set up sales centers in Hongkong, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing and production base in Songjiang of Shanghai with total investment up to RMB800 million in China. In addition, Nichia plans to increase 2 to 3 branches in 3 years, establish a system for covering high-end, mid-end and low-end customers, and enhance the cooperation with big and powerful clients to form alliance.
Tasaki, vice president of Nichia, pointed out that the revenue of Nichia was up to JPY377.6 billion (approximately RMB29 billion) in 2011, of which the revenue of China's market accounted for 27% (incl. Taiwan). He said China's LED market will be the world's biggest market in the future, so the company set China's market as the most important strategic part of Nichia and arrange LED business in China in the next 10 years according to this.
According to Tasaki, Nichia invested totally RMB8.6 billion in equipments and RMB1.5 billion in R&D in 2011. He expected that the company will add RMB4.2 billion in equipments and RMB1.7 billion in R&D in 2012. He emphasized that the investment is four times that of Samsung.
Tasaki also noted that the efficacy of LED of the mass-produced white LED of Nichia is 140lm/w in 2011 and estimated that this number will be up to 150lm/w in 2012. He stressed that the company will enhance the cost competitiveness by increasing productivity with focus on the R&D and market investment of the most advanced products. It is predicted that the chip productivity of Nichia will be 5 billion per month by the end of 2012.
