3 February 2011

Taiwan LED production bounces back to US$5,43bn in 2010

The economic rebound drove Taiwan’s total LED production value to bounce back by about 57% from the low of about US$3.46bn in 2009 to US$5.43bn in 2010, reckons the country’s Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA). Of this, LED epi (wafers and chips) comprised just under US$2bn, LED packaging just over US$2.9bn, and LED lighting just over US$0.5bn.

Also, PIDA forecasts that, due to the continued expansion of the LED application market, the total LED production value will grow 40% year-on-year in 2011 (to about US$8bn) and then again in 2012 (to US$11.3bn, including about US$3.1bn for LED epi, US$4.7bn for LED packaging, and up to as much as US$3.4bn for LED lighting).

With the rapid advance in LED technologies in Taiwan over the past few years, LEDs have been used as the backlight for cell phones, notebook computers and TVs. With the high-power LED technology of Taiwanese LED makers approaching that of the big LED makers in the industrial countries, product quality and sales have shown big improvements, says PIDA. Taiwan's LED makers have “become members of the international supply chain thanks to technical know-how, lower prices and outstanding quality, and have entered the high-growth application markets in backlight and lighting”, adds the PIDA.

In 2010, Taiwan continued to be the top-ranked country in the world in terms of LED wafer and chip production output as the Taiwanese LED industry continues to grow. Its main products are indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LEDs, aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) LEDs and traditional infrared and ultraviolet LED products.

InGaN LEDs comprise 52% of the Taiwanese LED industry’s production value. Currently, due to the large growth in backlighting for liquid-crystal displays and in lighting, the main product is the blue InGaN LED (with the addition of a phosphor to provide white-light LEDs), so this is what Taiwan's LED makers are focusing on, says PIDA.

Tags: LEDs Taiwan LEDs market

Visit: www.pida.org.tw

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