Nichia took top spot in China’s LED package market in 2014

The general lighting market has been the main driving force, and the rising market penetration rates of commercial and residential LED lighting products has been fueling China’s growing demands. On the other hand, demand in the medium- and large-size LED backlight sectors have fallen due to technological advances that has reduced LED usage. The downturn in medium- and large-size LED backlight sectors has also been attributed to the LED TV’s easing demand growth. The small-size LED backlight sector, however, has seen strong demands owing to Chinese smartphone brands, which have steadily gained market shares. Moreover, recent developments in the fine pitch LED display has become the newest technological breakthrough that will energize the small-size LED backlight sector. LEDinside therefore expects the demand growth of LEDs for fine pitch displays to accelerate in the next two years. “China has become the target market for competing LED package companies around the world,” said LEDinside analyst Allen Yu, “In 2014, the global top 10 LED package enterprises took 45.6% of the Chinese package market, showing a yearly market share increase of 2%. The restructuring of the industry has been ongoing and its concentration ratio has also been gradually rising.” Based on LEDinside’s ranking of LED package companies for 2014, Nichia and Everlight maintained their first and second positions. MLS climbed to No. 3 and was followed closely by Cree and Lumileds ranking respectively at No. 4 and 5. “For Chinese LED companies, technologies and patent issues are presently the main barriers standing between them and the high-end product markets in the U.S. and Europe,” Yu noted. “These problems can be overcome by collaborating with major international manufacturers, as in the case of Refond and Jufei sealing an agreement with Toyoda Gosei this January to obtain the latter’s white-light LED patents.” With the goal of gaining market access in U.S. and Europe, more Chinese package enterprises will soon join forces with foreign counterparts in areas concerning technical expertise and IP assets. ----- Source: Trendforce