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Affected by Inventory Adjustment,
LED Price Quotation in 2011
Continues to Decrease
LEDinside
Last updated at 15:34 04/06/2011
Based on the survey of LEDinside, the LED research division under TrendForce, LEDinside indicated that the speed of LED market demand recovery in the first quarter of 2011 is lower than expected. Affected by inventory adjustment of the large-sized panel display market and the LED lighting market, LED manufacturers are facing the pressure of price reduction.
LEDinside indicated that profit margin of LED backlight products is believed to remain small in 2011 and the current market price quotes could go down further. The LED purchase orders have increased since March and the extent of the price decrease is expected to shrink. Moreover, many LED manufacturers increased their capacities in the second half of the year and the low-end backlight specification has been modified as the Chinese LED enterprises’ technology skills on chip and package manufacturing have improved. It is estimated that some backlight products will experience even fiercer price competition in the future.
As for the high power LED lighting market, the price quotation is expected to continue to decrease in the short term. Notably, the market demand depends on whether the reconstruction demand from Japan will show up in the second half of 2011 or other countries will launch other subsidy policies for energy saving and carbon emission reduction.
As for the LED chip price quotation, the extent of decrease for different specifications varies. The average price in the first quarter of 2011 has dropped by 15%~20%, but the price of small-sized chips has decreased by over 30%.
In terms of LED package component, there are different magnitudes of decrease in the LED backlight price quotations as well. The largest decrease is the price for LED backlit TV which has dropped by 10%~15%. However, the LED specification development for the NB and monitor applications has become mature, and the price has plummeted to the bottom in the past two years. Therefore, the price merely decreased by 3%~5%, and the extent of decrease is limited. Besides, due to relatively stable demand for the mobile backlight products, the price is much more stable with a slight decrease of 3%, compared with products of other specifications. As for high power LED lighting applications, affected by inventory adjustment, the price has dropped dramatically, and average price has fallen by 15%~20%.
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Epistar aims US$1/500 lm goal
in 2012
DIGITIMES
Yvonne Yu
Last updated 01/18/2011
In order to get a upper-hand position in the global LED lighting market, Taiwan-based LED chipmaker Epistar will actively lower the brightness cost of LED lighting products and aims to reach the goal of US$1 per 500 lumen in 2012, three years earlier than the schedule set by the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Chairman of Epistar, Lee Biing-jye, indicated that Epistar aims to reach clients' expectation ahead of schedule and take a lead in reducing the cost per lumen in order to become the leading LED supplier in the global LED lighting market in 2013.
Market sources also noted that due to benefits from increasing demand from TV backlighting and the general lighting market, Epistar's revenues in 2011 are expected to reach NT$27 billion (US$931.04 million), an increase of 37% on year.
Based on Epistar's internal schedule, overall LED lighting costs will drop to US$1 per 250 lumen in 2011 and the company should have a 5% share in the global lighting market. Epistar aims to reduce the cost of LED to US$1 per 500 lumen in 2012 and boost its overall market share of LEDs to 10% of the global lighting market, and to US$1 per 1,000 lumen in 2015 with a 25% market share, and to 60% by 2017.
Epistar indicated that current market price of a incandescent bulbs is about US$1.5 and US$2.5 for an energy-saving lighting bulb, while quotes for an LED light bulb from a factory is about US$5 and US$12.5-15 in retail. If the market price of an LED light bulb drops to US$7-8 in 2015, the market share of LEDs in the global lighting market should be able to reach 25%, and help to drive the overall LED lighting industry value to account for 50% of the total lighting market.
Chairman of Epistar, Lee Biing-jye
Photo: Terry Ku, Digitimes, January 2011 |
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LED Lighting Continues Growth to
10% Market Share in 2011
Last updated 12/08/2010
Lighting will generate significant growth for the LED industry. Based on latest data from Digitimes Research, the high brightness LED market will grow to US$12.6 billion in 2011, up 53% from US$8.25 billion in 2010. The overall use of LEDs in lighting will increase to 12.4 billion units in 2011 from 4.8 billion units in 2010, as the effects of LED light bulbs replacing incandescent bulbs will start to show in 2011.
Although lighting will not have a high share in the overall LED market, accounting for 3.2% of the overall LED industry value in 2010, major countries worldwide have laid down LED lighting policies and been actively promoting the development of the LED lighting industry because of growing environmental concerns.
Digitimes Research analyst Jessie Lin noted that global demand for LED light bulbs will increase significantly from 596 million units in 2011 to 2.5 billion units in 2013. Due to trial projects in many major cities in China, US and Europe, LED streetlamps will increase to 9.8 million units in 2013 from 2.2 million units in 2011.
With major countries promoting LED lighting, LED lumen efficiency has been improving significantly, and the prices for LED lighting are estimated to drop by 20-30% every year. Lin estimated that LED lighting demand will increase at a CAGR of 97.4% from 2009 to 2013, higher than the CAGR of 62.6% for LEDs used in large-size LCD backlighting in the same period. The overall LED lighting market will reach US$15.4 billion in 2011, and LED lighting devices will account for 10.6% of the overall lighting market in 2011, Lin said.
Source: Digitimes Research, December 2010
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March Foods Ltd. Installs LED
Lighting Fixtures
LEDinside
Last updated 11/30/2010
Food warehouses save cost and energy with Carbon Trust funded LED lighting
For the last three years Managing Director Paul Cope of UK based March Foods had been looking for a way to reduce energy consumption in his warehouses. After rejecting voltage controllers as old technology, he began to examine LED lighting as a potential smart solution. In January 2010 he knew he had found the answer when installer Tom Klimes of Interior Control Ltd presented him with an LED High Bay unit from Dialight, a UK based company specialising in applied LED technology.
About March Foods
March Foods is one of the UK’s leading food contract manufacturers and packing businesses, specialising in providing timely and high quality production services. This privately owned UK business operates from its 11,000 m² (120,000 ft2) purpose built premises in Cambridgeshire, offering its brand-owning customers individually tailored production cells, warehousing, laboratory facilities, engineering workshops, offices and an extensive range of blending, filling and packing equipment. The company’s dedicated Continuous Improvement team is focused on examining all lines new or established and looking to see how it can improve every aspect of its operation including process reliability, quality and efficiency aimed at improving service and product.
The lighting challenge
Paul Cope describes the problems he wanted to solve: “We had two 3,250 square metre (35,000 sq ft) warehouses with a total of 84 x 450W HPS lamps operating 24/5 and Saturdays. Even though we are not constantly in and out of all bays in the warehouse all the time, the old lamps couldn’t be switched off as they took 10-15 minutes to re-strike, so I wanted a more energy efficient solution. And to be honest, the lighting was getting so that Lord Lucan could have hidden in our warehouse!”
“Then there’s the maintenance problem. With 15 metre high ceilings (49 ft) you need to bring in a cherry picker to replace failed lamps and you can’t have people working underneath. That means we’d typically wait until 4-8 lamps had failed before hiring the scissor lift over a weekend to replace them. This was costing about ￡2,000 annually.”
“On top of that the HPS lamps are fragile and hang about 4-5 feet from the ceiling, so that just puts them in the range of an extended pallet truck. It was quite common to lose a few of them that way.”
How the challenge was overcome with LED lighting
Interior Control replaced the 84 x 450W HPS lamps on a one-to-one basis with the Dialight DuroSite™ Series LED High Bay. This highly robust 150W fitting features eight arrays in a compact oval pattern that enables it to direct light efficiently with less wastage and delivers an immediate saving in power of 66%.
Unlike HPS, the LED lighting has instant-on ability, so it works well with occupancy sensors and this has further increased energy saving to 72% as well as reducing carbon emissions by over 100 tonnes per year. The oval pattern of the arrays also means less wasted light on racking and more directed at floor level in the aisles where 110 lux was measured under the HPS, which had dimmed over time, increasing to 221 lux after the installation of the LED High Bays. Tom Klimes comments: “We’ve removed the maintenance burden by fitting LED lighting, as these High Bays are warranted for five years of continuous performance and you can expect them to last ten or more if they’re not in use
“A guy in the warehouse said that the first night the LED lights were on he had to keep checking the back door as it was so like daylight they thought the door had been left open. “ Tom Klimes, Interior Controls
Also, they hang only two feet from the ceiling and are very robustly constructed, so the lights are no longer vulnerable to being clipped by extended pallet trucks. With LED lighting you really can ‘fit and forget’.”
He adds: “We could probably have got away with fitting two LED for three HPS rather than one-for-one, but chose instead to avoid the cost of rewiring. As a result you might think we’ve over-lit, but the March Foods warehouse workers love it. One of them even says that now he feels noticeably less tired at the end of a night shift.
Funding and payback
As a British SME, March Foods was able to have its LED installation funded by a 4-year interest-free loan of ￡38,000 from the Carbon Trust which offers a ￡1,000 loan for every 2.5 tonnes of CO2 saved, so the capital expenditure is effectively funded by the energy savings. Having originally underestimated the energy savings to be made from using occupancy sensors Paul Cope now estimates that payback will take less than three years and may even be six months sooner than that when movements in electricity prices are taken into account. He reasons that with this sort of payback period it makes sense to retrofit LEDs even if you have a lease of 5 years or less on your building.
Looking ahead
“March Foods are so pleased with this solution that they’re happy to be a reference site,” said Tom Klimes, “and we’ve already taken a couple of other customers to see the installation who were very positive about it. They both operate 24/7 and can immediately see the benefits of LED lighting for companies like them.”
He adds, “This is our first experience of having the Carbon Trust provide the loan for a customer, but now we’re finding lots of people wanting to take advantage of it to help them deploy energy saving technologies.” Paul Cope says: “We’re delighted with our LED lights and the five-year guarantee is very important for us. I insist on a spotless warehouse, so I really like the brightness. In fact we’re now thinking of going LED in the loading bay between the warehouses and even in the offices.” |
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Unity Opto Revs Up LED Lighting
Operation
CENS
Ken Liu
Last updated 11/25/2010
Taipei, Nov. 25, 2010 (CENS)--Unity Opto Technology Co., Ltd., a leading LED packager in Taiwan, will shift sales emphasis to lighting market in 2011 after securing stable customer base in backlight market.
Corporate chairman, C.H. Wu, estimated the company`s lighting operation would rake in revenue of around NT$2-2.5 billion (US$66-83 million at US$1:NT$30) in 2011, up from NT$1 billion (US$33 million) for 2010 to account for 20% of the company`s total sales, up from 2010`s 15%.
Wu pointed out that the keys for LED-lighting manufacturers to win are distribution channel and cost efficiency, adding that Taiwan`s manufacturers are advantageous over international patent holders in terms of cost efficiency. To create its distribution channel advantage, Wu said his company has been vigorously seeking partnership with retailers in Europe, mainland China and Japan.
Recently, the company has won LED-lighting contracts from several Spanish retailers and 30 hotel chains in Europe. Industry executives estimated each of the hotel chains would contract Unity Opto to supply NT$30 million (US$1 million) of LED lighting products a month.
Wu felt that lights for commercial buildings like offices, factories, parking lots and shops would dominate the LED-lighting market in 2011, as the time for investors of LED commercial lights to see investment return has shortened to two years.
The company`s backlight operation, Wu estimated, would rake in sales of around NT$8 billion (US$266 million) in 2011, up from the projected NT$5 billion (US$166 million) for 2010 as a result of Samsung`s orders calling for backlights for its new LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs.
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