Taiwan's Total LED Output Value in 2011 Can Reach US$4.537 Billion

Taiwan's total LED output value (including upstream chips/epitaxial wafer, and downstream packaging) in 2011 can reach US$4.537 billion, a slight 0.4% decrease on year, but it ranks as number one in the world, according to estimates by PIDA. China's output value will likely show the most growth of 26% in 2011. South Korea's LED industry has been expanding rapidly in recent years. Korea-based LED firms have support from their parent groups. Korea-based LED lighting brands have been effectively lowering retail prices of LED light bulbs that are to replace the 40W traditional lighting to US$11-12/unit. To save costs, Korea-based LED firms have been procuring LED components from Taiwan-based peers. According to industry sources, Korea-based LED firms have been suffering severe losses with average capacity utilization of upstream epitaxial wafer firms only reaching 40-50%. Studies showed that South Korea's total output value from the LED industry in 2011 grew by 5% on year, reaching NT$3.352 billion. The 2011 total output value of the LED industry in Europe decreased by 7.3% to US$1.609 billion due to the debt crisis causing the economy to shrink and price competitions from Asia-based peers. Source: www.digitimes.com