15 Institutions Hasten to Investigate LED; Laying Out LED to Light the Way Forward
Less than half a month after the New Year, 15 institutions have already rushed to investigate LED companies, laying out LED to "illuminate the road ahead."
On February 18, "China's Lighting King" Foshan Lighting (000541) welcomed joint research from 9 institutions including Nomura International (Hong Kong), China Investment International (Hong Kong), and Value Partners. During the research, the company stated that LED should continue to maintain a relatively rapid development pace in the next few years, and the LED lighting market capacity will further expand.
Similarly, another company that has had multiple exchanges this year and whose stock price has continued to rise is Lianjian Optoelectronics (300263), with the stock rising as much as 72% since the beginning of the year. On February 14, the company hosted research from GF Securities, and the topic discussed most was the LED display manufacturing and outdoor advertising operation industry chain.
Another company attracting institutional attention is domestic LED packaging industry leader NationStar Optoelectronics (002449). On February 12 and 14, NationStar Optoelectronics received visits from three institutions: Galaxy Investment (000806), Shanghai Bangyang Investment, and Ruixin Investment. During the research visit, the company revealed its 2014 capacity expansion plan for packaging and stated that it would gradually promote the integration of the company across the upstream, midstream, and downstream of the LED industry chain, establishing a complete LED industry chain and achieving vertical integration.
Just one day before NationStar Optoelectronics received its research visit, Qilu Securities partnered with China International Investment to visit ChangFeng Irradiance (300102), which mainly engages in semiconductor optoelectronics. During the visit, ChangFeng Irradiance (300102) responded for the first time to inquiries about its investment direction in the blue and green light field, saying that it did not rule out the possibility of the company entering the blue and green light field.
The phase-out plans for incandescent lamps in major countries and regions around the world entering their batch-effective stage in 2014, along with the decline in costs of LED lighting fixtures, will surely trigger an explosion in the LED general lighting market. The LED lighting market, a huge market worth hundreds of billions of yuan, is expected to sustain a major industry cycle opportunity lasting 3 to 4 years.
A securities analyst told reporters that, currently looking at the entire electronics field, the LED industry has shown solid performance support. With both performance and thematic concepts not lacking in the LED industry in the first quarter, it will become the most important layout direction for the "spring offensive."
NationStar Optoelectronics: Expanding packaging capacity in mid-year
Research Institution: How is the progress of the company's vertical integration development strategy?
Board Secretary Liu Di: The company takes packaging as its main business and, while maintaining a stable development pace, extends both upstream and downstream respectively.
Regarding upstream chips, the company established its holding subsidiary Foshan Guoxing Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. in 2011. By the end of 2013, Guoxing Semiconductor had completed the commissioning of 10 pieces of equipment put into production, mainly small-power chips, and the chip products produced have been supplied to the company's packaging business for use.
Regarding downstream lighting applications, the company began to carry out channel construction across the country from 2012, set up 12 operation management centers, continuously established its own brand, enhanced brand awareness, and increased market development in the lighting application field.
Research Institution: What is the current packaging capacity that can be achieved?
Board Secretary Liu Di: About 1000KK/month.
Research Institution: What is the company's next production expansion plan?
Board Secretary Liu Di: The company plans to expand production to 1400kk/month by mid-2014.
Research Institution: The industry refers to "chip overcapacity," because according to statistics there are already about 900 MOCVD units in the industry, yet the market only needs 700. What is your view on this?
Deputy General Manager Li Cheng: With the increase in LED application demand in 2014, it can be said that chip production capacity matches market demand.
Foshan Lighting: LED will develop rapidly in the next few years
Research Institution: How is the company's LED development going?
Foshan Lighting: Since 2012, the company has been fully committed to developing LED products. The company's LED products are mainly concentrated in the end-application field, leveraging its existing channel advantages, brand advantages, scale advantages, and cost advantages to vigorously develop LED products. At the same time, the company has increased technological investment and continuously developed new products, enabling rapid development of its LED products.
Research Institution: How do you view the future development trends of LED? Who currently has LED pricing power?
Foshan Lighting: LED should maintain a relatively rapid development speed in the coming years. Moreover, with breakthroughs in upstream technology and price decreases, LED is currently developing from initial public lighting to commercial lighting, industrial lighting, and home lighting. The market capacity of LED lighting will further expand in the future. However, it should be noted that there are currently many LED manufacturers and competition is very fierce; no single company has a particularly high market share for its LED products.
Research Institution: What are the company's sales channels?
Foshan Lighting: The company currently focuses primarily on distribution and wholesale channels, as well as specialty store channels, project channels, e-commerce and retail channels. In the future, the company will further accelerate channel development to build channel advantages.
Lianjian Optoelectronics: Connecting the LED and outdoor advertising operation industry chain
Research Institution: What proportion of the total revenue of Fenshi Media does the revenue from LED outdoor large screens account for?
Lianjian Optoelectronics: The total revenue of Fenshi Media is over 400 million, of which the outdoor large-screen advertising revenue is over 30 million, but it has maintained an average growth rate of 60% in the past two years.
Research institution: What is the company's future strategy?
Liantronics: Utilizing the capital platform to extend into the downstream LED outdoor advertising operations industry, connecting the LED display manufacturing and outdoor advertising operations industry chains. With the implementation of the "Thousand-Screen Outdoor Advertising Joint Broadcast" plan as the long-term goal, we aim to build into a scaled media operator covering major cities nationwide and achieving terminal penetration into third and fourth-tier cities.
Research institution: Currently, what is the maximum monthly production capacity of the company's LED displays?
Liantronics:: Currently, the maximum monthly production capacity can reach 10,000 square meters. This is because the company's LED displays are produced on an order basis, with both off-season and peak-season periods, and the maximum production capacity can meet the production demand during peak season.