LED Firms Saw Sales Growth in March,Posing Challenges for The Traditional Lighting Market

LED firms, from upstream chip manufacturers to downstream packaging manufacturers, all saw sales growth in March, posing challenges for the traditional lighting market. Leading LED chip manufacturer, Epistar, saw revenues in March at NT$1.436 billion (US$48.6 million), the company's highest level in eight months. Although that number is a 15.44% drop compared to the same period during 2011, it is a 21.16% growth over February. The company has order visibility to the end of May and predicts its capacity utilization rate will reach 90% in April. Leading downstream packaging manufacturer, Everlight, reported revenue at NT$1.376 billion (US$46.6 million), giving the company a 12.7% monthly growth rate and hitting the highest in nine months, despite the number being 5.75% lower compared with the same period in 2011. Everlight said its capacity utilization rate is around 60-70% at present but predicts that number will increase to 70-80% in the second quarter with backlighting and other lighting products becoming more in demand. In addition, Ledtech saw its consolidated revenues in March at NT$166 million (US$5.6 million), a 52.96% increase compared with the company's NT$109 million (US$3.7 million) revenues in February. The sum was the company's highest in 20 months due to increased demand for low-temperature LED lighting and commercial lighting. Bright LED Electronics reported NT$322 million (US$10.9 million) in revenue during March with a monthly growth rate of 23.07%, but a decrease of 22.01% on year. But Bright said with increased demand for street lamps it is optimistic growth will continue in the second quarter and that its capacity utilization rate will increase to 90%, making it a possibility to see sales grow by 20% more compared with the first quarter. Moreover, Edison saw its March revenues at NT$213 million (US$7.2 million), a monthly increase of 8.83% and a yearly decrease of 17.29%. Edison stated the increase is due to increased demand in the LED backlighting market during the first quarter, but that still represents a decrease from the same time period last year. Meanwhile, LED chip manufacturer Tekcore also saw its revenues increase to NT$173 million (US$5.9 million) in March, giving the company a monthly increase of 30.94%. However, the company saw a 43.84% decline in revenues compared to what it reported in the same period of 2011, the largest decline compared to any other Taiwan chip manufacturer. Source: www.digitimes.com