Taiwan LED makers stuck over 18.4pc MoM in March

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to the latest statistics from LEDinside.com, an industry research firm, the total operating revenue of the listed LED companies in Taiwan this March had reached NTD 57.75 hundred million (USD 1.88 hundred million), a 18.4 percent MoM comparing to previous month's NTD 49.34 hundred million (USD 1.61 hundred million) and a 17.17 percent YoY.

The total operating revenue of LED crystal grain manufacturers reached NTD 25.13 hundred million, and had grown 15.31 percent compared to last month. Among them, Genesis Photonics Inc. and Formosa Epitaxy Inc. hit the historical high of revenue performance in March. As for LED-packaging manufactures, its operating revenue had climbed 20.89 percent to NTD 33.3 hundred million compared to February.

The impressive growth of the total operating revenue of Taiwanese LED crystal grain manufacturers this March is due to the temporary suspension of the downstream firms during the Chinese New Year in Mainland China and had brought about a low base rate a month ago. Among them, Genesis Photonics and Formosa Epitaxy touched over 30 percent MoM in March.

Genesis Photonics, reaching an operating revenue of NTD 1.2 hundred million (USD) and a 44.6 percent MoM, had mainly benefited from the production of blue LED crystal grain and the boosting supply of new customers. In light of Formosa Epitaxy, its operating revenue of March, which had set a new high record of NTD 1.57 hundred million (USD), had mostly resulted from the upsurge of the production of mid small sized backlight module and high-power LED.

From the perspective of the downstream LED-packaging manufacturers, though the MoM of its revenue performance this March was better than the upstream LED grain crystal manufacturers; however, its entire operating revenue is still less than they were in January. In terms of "Bright Led Electronics Corp", due to the new output of SMD and infra-red and the increased backorders, its operating revenue was NTD 3.75 hundred million (USD) and was with a historical high this March.

Looking at the revenue performance of entire LED industry in second quarter, since most of the LED grain crystal manufacturers have started buying the MOCVD equipments from the first quarter, according to the forecast from LEDinside.

“The production capacity of upstream LED epitaxy will constantly increase and will benefit from the downstream packaging firms as well. Therefore, the operating revenue of LED manufacturers in April will upswing.” said Roger Chu, LEDinside analyst. From the viewpoint of application, since the peak period has come, the small-mid sized panel will not meet serious shortage. The application of mid-small sized LED backlight will be surged as well comparing to last year. So far, the backorders of UHB-LED has obviously risen. In terms of cell phone, the backorders of china white-box cell phone (open phone) has been gradually elevated; however, the demand of major cell phone companies is still vague; therefore, the blue LED product demand of specs from 1300 to 1500mcd is with a slow growing speed.

A report from LEDinside, since upstream LED manufacturers have boosted its production capacity in second quarter; therefore, the growing margin of cell phone demand in Q2 should be worth to pay attention to. If cell phone demand meets the production boosting range from LED manufacturers, it will contribute to the revenue performance of LED manufacturers in Q2-08.