Financial statement by major LED makers in Europe, USA, Japan and South Korea in 4Q10 to show new trend

TAIWAN: Based on the analysis and statistics of LEDinside, which is a research division under TrendForce, International LED major manufacturers successively released their 4Q10 financial reports. In terms of upstream equipment suppliers, the LED and solar revenue of Veeco set the highest quarterly record of $258 million.

Over 20 customers, such Shanghai Epilight, placed the purchase orders for lighting application. However, the planned shipments of 12-20 new MOCVD products「MaxBright」are not included in the Q1 financial statement. Besides, the revenue recognition delay is expected to greatly affect the result of Q1 financial results.

However, since the fund-subsidy policy launched by Chinese government, LED enterprises keep on production expansions. Orders from Korean customers are expected to surge in backlight and lighting markets in Q2 and Q3. Moreover, it is forecasted that the MOCVD orders for K465i and MaxBright will also increase in the markets of Europe, USA, Japan and Taiwan. To sum up, Veeco is still optimistic about market quotations in the first half of 2011.

The revenue of Cree was worse than expected, because the sales of LED components declined in Asia market, which resulted in the fact that the turnover time of receivables is lengthened to 47 days, with the inventory date increased to 96 days. From January to March in 2011, influenced by continuous inventory adjustment of Asia customers, Cree forecasts that Q1 revenue will drop to $245-265 million.

However, the sales of Philips LED lighting products has increased by four times over the same period of 2009, which benefits from a range of professional LED solutions applied in over 200 Chinese lighting stores and the turnover reduction caused by the lagged market development in India and North America.

Regarding the manufacturers in South Korea, influenced by LED TV inventory adjustment and price reduction, LG Innotek, have obtained the annual sales of $789 million in 2010. The LED department of SEMCO doubled the annual sales to $1.142 billion compared with 2009.

Because of slack season and LED TV inventory adjustment, the quarterly sales of Seoul Semi reduced sharply by 20 percent to $198 million, but rebounded in Q4. It is estimated that the annual sales will reach 1.203 billion in 2011(+61 percent YoY), mainly of TV backlights and general lighting applications.

Based on the extension of eco-point subsidy in Japan, Sharp LED TV has increased greatly in demand, and planned to introduce large-size television with 60-70 inch screen in order to seize the business opportunity in North America. In addition, the recovery of Stanley vehicle lighting will slow down caused by the termination of green vehicle subsidy in Japan and the incentive policy in Germany and Italy.

In conclusion, 2010 is an evolutionary year for LED manufacturers, while 2011 will become a brighter year.