Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar benefited from an increase in backlight orders with a limited affect on their slack season. Order visibility for February orders after Lunar New Year is still not completely clear. However, the situation in January 2014 had an obvious turn for the better with utilization rates maintaining a standard of 80-90 percent.
Large sized backlight orders rebounded in 4Q13. Revenue in 3Q14 reached NT $5.8 billion (US $193 million), a quarterly decrease of 5.17 percent. With 4Q backlight demands rejuvenating, Epistar 2013 October consolidated revenue reached NT $1.98 billion, and November revenue increased to NT $2.08 billion. It’s rare for 4Q to have second highest overall revenue performance. Although the company’s December revenue was impacted at the end of the year by European and U.S. holiday season and customer stocktaking which resulted in a decline compared to November, legal persons estimate that 4Q revenue performance for 2013 still has a chance to surpass 3Q.
Although the traditional slack season for the LED industry is typically during 1Q, Epitar said that demands for LED backlight will continue in January with order visibility before the start of the Lunar New Year. Utilization rates will remain high around 80-90 percent. Currently, order visibility after Lunar New Year is still not completely clear but the company is optimistic.
