LED Backlight Application Demand May Peak in 2013

[China Light Network News] April 17 news, according to foreign media reports, market research firm DisplaySearch analyzed and predicted that LED backlight application demand will peak in 2013, after which it will gradually decline. The main reason is that due to improvements in technology, LED brightness has increased, reducing the number of LEDs used. For example, the edge-lit design in backlight modules has gradually changed from long-edge light entry to short-edge light entry. As for LED lighting applications, they will continue to grow strongly.

According to DisplaySearch forecasts, the demand for lighting LEDs in 2010 was approximately 11.08 billion units, and the demand for backlight sources was approximately 37.77 billion units. It is estimated that the demand for lighting and backlight LEDs in 2011 will increase to 13.77 billion units and 48.66 billion units respectively, in 2012 to 21.27 billion units and 55.06 billion units respectively, in 2013 to 36.87 billion units and 55.2 billion units respectively, and by 2014, the demand for LED lighting and backlight LEDs will reach 60.44 billion units and 54.2 billion units respectively.

In terms of lighting, DisplaySearch said that Japan was one of the earlier regions to adopt LED lighting, but it is expected that Japan's share of global LED lighting demand will gradually decline. This is because LED lighting demand in other countries and regions will gradually rise.

Although the market expected that post-disaster reconstruction in Japan would drive demand for energy-saving lighting after the earthquake, LED lighting is not an immediate necessity (it is expected that infrastructure will still be prioritized), which may instead delay the development timeline of LED lighting in the Japanese market.

Regarding the LED supply and demand structure, although there was a slight shortage in LED supply in early 2010, the new capacity of LED companies gradually came online in the third and fourth quarters of 2010. In 2010, the world's largest LED supply source was South Korea, followed by Taiwan in second place. However, it is estimated that in 2011, Taiwan will leap to become the world's largest LED supply source, with South Korea falling to second place. In the first quarter of 2011, the world's top three LED chip suppliers were Samsung's S-LED, LGIT, and Epistar. In total, Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers account for over 70% of the global LED chip supply.

(Editor in charge: zhouboone)