Taiwan expected to become the world's largest LED base in 2011

Recently, according to Taiwan media reports, despite the rise of LED companies in mainland China, upstream chip companies in Taiwan have actively established bases in mainland China to expand their market share. According to market research firm DisplaySearch, the world's largest LED supply source in 2010 was South Korea, followed by Taiwan in second place. However, it is estimated that Taiwan will leap to become the world's largest LED supply source in 2011, with South Korea falling to second place.

According to DisplaySearch, the top three global LED chip suppliers in the first quarter of 2011 were South Korea's Samsung S-LED and LG IT, with Taiwan's Epistar in third place. In total, Taiwanese and Korean companies accounted for more than 70% of the global LED chip supply.

Looking at how Taiwanese manufacturers are competing for the mainland China market, currently only Wide-Yield under the Epistar Group has not yet set up a factory in mainland China. The remaining companies, including Formosa Epitaxy, Genesis Photonics, Tekcore, Arima Optoelectronics, and Tyntek, all have investment plans to set up factories in mainland China, with production expected to commence successively over the next two years.

Zhan Yiren, Director of the Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Institute at ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), stated that Taiwan manufacturers need to find downstream outlets, while panel and TV makers also hope to be bound together through strategic cooperation in order to secure stable material sources. As Taiwan enterprises possess LED process technology, cases of cooperation between Chinese mainland downstream enterprises and Taiwan firms will continue to increase in the future.

In addition to recent cooperations between Epistar and TPV, as well as TPV's parent group China Electronics Information Industry Group (CEC), Formosepower has also set up a factory in Yangzhou with Korea's LGD and AmTRAN; Harvatek has jointly established an epitaxial wafer plant with Changzhi in Shanxi Province.

(Responsible editor: zhouboone)