Traditional slack season plus Chinese National Day holidays yet to stimulate LED backlit TV demand

TAIWAN: TAIWAN: Based on the analysis and statistics of LEDinside, a research division under TrendForce, in October 2010, listed LED manufacturers in Taiwan have total revenue of 8.69 billion NTD, a 10.77 percent decline compared with September revenue of 9.736 billion NTD and 21.3 percent rise in YoY.The revenue for LED chip manufacturers in October reached 4.14 billion NTD, down 9.1 percent from September. The revenue for LED package manufacturers in October amounted to 4.54 billion NTD, down 12.3 percent from September.

LED backlight market analysis
During Chinese National Day Holidays, Chinese TV brand vendors took this opportunity to reduce traditional LCV, but it did not improve LED manufacturers’ revenue and sales performance, and made many manufacturers to expect LED market demand in 2011.WitsView, the other research division under TrendForce, showed that the LED market demand is expected to improve which benefits from decreasing problem from lack of light guide plates, agressive planel vendors’ and TV brand vendors’ road maps, and strong demand of the Chinese market. LEDinside estimated that after market demand improves, it will also bring rising LED shipment.

Similarly, this situation also affected MOCVD equipment vendors’ revenue, which is one of the upstream LED supply chain. MOCVD equipment vendors has announced financial report of the third quarter of 2011. Aixtron and Veeco indicated that their order backlog respectively reach $353 million and $569 million.

Due to many Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers’ facility readiness, revenue timing could be shifted into the first quarter of 2011. It showed that the revenue of the whole LED supply chain will not be as optimistic as we had expected.

Revenue of chip manufacturers in October
The revenue of Taiwan’s chip manufacturers in October is observed to slip 9.1 percent from September and rise 31.4 percent YoY. Due to the weak LED backlit TV sales performance and a 16.3 percent decrease in October revenue of the parent company, AUO group, Lextar’s revenue dropped by 30 percent.

Besides, because of co-operation between Forepi and Amtran, there is no problem from the downstream demand. Forepi’s performance stayed at the same level, and had a 58.9 percent growth in year-over-year. Besides, Forepi’s financial report of third quarter has been showed that gross profit ratio and EBIT were 46.56 percent and 36.76 percent, respectively, being the first place of the LED industry.

Moreover, there was a 5.5 percent increase in October revenue of Genesis Photonics, reaching 331 million NTD, due to 35 percent of revenue were from billboard lighting market. It was showed that Genesis Photonics has developed at a stable trend. Moreover, HV LED, which was co-operatively developed between Epistar and Delta, has been requested by Osram and income will be showed in the near future.

Revenue of package manufacturers in October
LED package manufacturers posted 4.55 billion NTD revenue and a revenue growth of 13.4 percent YoY, but declined 12.3 percent from September. Revenues of Taiwanese manufacturers have dropped by around 5-10 percent. However, Unity Opto monthly revenue has risen by 5 percent due to increasing NB orders intake.International lighting manufacturers lately revealed the financial report of the third quarter of 2010, including Philips, Osram, and Cree, have delivered a great performance. Because of constant demand of light market, LED lighting can drive into the main lighting market. It is expected that LED lighting has a bright future.