LED manufacturers are branching into the niche application markets as the competition in their industry expands. Currently, entering the automotive LED market is regarded as a blue ocean strategy because the market has relatively few contestants and allows for higher pricing. According to the latest Gold Member Report – 2016 LED Market Demand and Supply Analysis by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, the worldwide market value of exterior automotive LEDs for 2015 is expected to reach US$1.21 billion. This figure is projected reach US$2.29 billion in 2020, translating to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% during the 2015~2020 period. Additionally, the market value of standard-power LEDs is gradually declining in contrast to the rapidly rising market value of high-power LEDs. In the future, automotive LED application will take off in the high-power LED market.

LED manufacturers had an especially tough year in 2015. Despite rising LED lighting market demands, and large scale replacements of traditional luminaires, the oversupply situation in the market has caused average sales price (ASP) of LEDs to plunge 30% to 40%. Growing number of manufacturers have incurred heavy losses and exiting the market. With 2016 just around the corner, LEDinside Research Director Roger Chu has listed ten major trends in the market including future LED industry consolidations and technology trends. Listed below are five major trends observed by LEDinside’s analyst team:   1.     Easing LED market growth in the near future Due to the oversupply situation in the LED industry, LEDs ASP prices plunged. LEDinside estimates the global high brightness LED market value in 2015 will increase at an incremental rate of 2% to US $14.52 billion. Even though lighting demands spurred LED usage volume growth, ironically the increasingly energy efficient LEDs are reducing usage volume. Additionally, LEDs still are under immense pressure to further lower prices. Based on these observations, LEDinside projects in the next five years the LED industry Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is unlikely to reach more than 10% in the future.

The scale of the LED lighting market is growing steadily, according to 2016 Global LED Lighting Market Trends Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. LEDinside estimates that the scale of the LED lighting market will reach US$25.7 billion in 2015 and expand to US$30.5 billion in 2016. The penetration rate of LED lighting is also projected to climb from 31% in 2015 to 36% in 2016.   Joanne Wu, LEDinside assistant research manager, stated that sharp price declines have severely impacted the margins of replacement products such as LED light bulbs and light tubes. Consequently, lighting companies begin to shift their focus to professional lighting markets and hope that increases in government spending, especially in new public projects, will create new opportunities. Sectors with tremendous growth potentials include industrial lighting, commercial lighting and architectural lighting.

This year has been very difficult for companies in the LED industry. While LED lighting products are seeing rising demands and have replaced numerous traditional products in different applications, their average selling prices have gone down by 30~40% due to oversupply. According to LEDinside, the value of the market for high-brightness LED products is projected to grow 2% year on year to US$14.52 billion in 2015. Duff Lu, LEDinside research manager, notes that the industry will undergo consolidation next year with companies merging or being driven out of business. With uncompetitive players leaving, the industry will gradually reorganize itself.

According to a recent estimation made by LEDinside, a division of Trendforce, the total lighting market value of the six major Southeast Asian countries - Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines - will reach about USD 4.8 billion in 2015. Out of that amount, about USD 1.5 billion comes from the LED lighting market. Southeast Asia’s LED lighting market had the fastest pace of growth in 2013 with a year-on-year increase of 63%. Though growth lagged during the 2014-2015 period, the rate was still kept at 30% and above. Moreover, the market penetration rate of LED lighting in Southeast Asia has risen with each passing year and at an accelerating speed. Overall, the market penetration rate of LED lighting in the region is projected to grow from 12% to 32% within 2012-2015. Southeast Asia is growing into the most dynamic and promising LED lighting market.

The average monthly price of sapphire has fallen by more than 30% year on year this September, according to the latest 2015 Global Sapphire and LED Chip Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. This decline is the result of suppliers expanding their production capacities despite the weaker-than-expected demand.

The scale of China’s LED package market is projected to expand 16% year on year to RMB 61.4 billion in 2015, according to the latest Chinese LED Industry Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The growth of Chinese LED package market on the whole has slowed. With China being the production center of the global LED industry, the weakening of global economy this year has led to a larger slide in the exports of the country’s LED products. The year-on-year increase of Chinese LED lighting product exports for this year’s first half is 21%, a steep decline compared with the 80% year-on-year growth for the first half of 2014.

According to the latest 2015 Global LED Industry Supply and Demand Database Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, capacity expansion efforts of Chinese LED chip manufacturers have resulted a supply glut with this year’s LED chip supply-demand ratio reaching 22%. LEDinside also estimates that the global MOCVD installed volume in 2015 will grow to 3,130 chambers, among which 1,473 are located in China and will account for 47% of this year’s global MOCVD capacity (MOCVD systems used in the calculation are of the K465i model).

LEDs are up to 80 percent more energy-efficient than normal light bulbs and last around five times as long as energy-saving light bulbs. As a result they are being used more and more frequently as a source of light. Nevertheless, white LEDs still have room for improvement, as current manufacturing processes are either very expensive or result in the lifetime of the LEDs being reduced. Researchers at FAU have now developed a new, rather unusual manufacturing method: their LEDs are partly made of fluorescent proteins.

The scale of the Chinese LED package market grew 19% year on year to US$8.6 billion in 2014, according to the 2015 Chinese LED Industry Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The growth of the Chinese LED package market will slow down in the next few years as LED prices continue to fall. Its market scale is forecasted to grow at a five-year CAGR of 9% from 2014 to 2019, when it will reach US$13 billion. The general lighting sector will be the main growth sector, whereas LED display and LED backlight sector will post slower growth and even decline in some periods.  According to LEDinside's analyst Allen Yu, LED package for lighting application represented 39% of the Chinese LED package market in 2014. The market scale of LED package for lighting application in China also reached US$3.3 billion that year. The lighting market has become the largest LED application in the country. “The increasing LED lighting penetration in industrial and commercial lighting applications has helped the rapid growth in lighting LED products,” said Yu. LEDinside expects strong growth in the lighting LED market to continue as LED lighting products penetrates the residential lighting application market. 

The global market value from the external sales of LED chips grew 18% from US$3.677 billion in 2013 to US$4.35 billion in 2014, according to the 2015 Global Sapphire and LED Chip Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The share of Chinese companies in the external sales market also rose from 27% in 2013 to 36% in 2014. 

According to its 2015 Chinese LED Industry Market Report, LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, finds the scale of the Chinese LED package market for 2014 reached US$8.6 billion and grew by 19% annually. 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. 

Chapter 3: LED market segments were added, covering the market scales on Chinese backlight LED, lighting LED and display LED fields. Also, Chinese LED package market scales in 2015-2019 by both manufacturer camps and power types are estimated. Furthermore, LED supply chain of backlight, lighting, and display markets are discussed.

The latest research by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, sees a significant growth for the infrared (IR) LED market in the near future. LEDinside’s 2Q15 Gold Member Report - 2015 Global LED Supply and Demand Market provides a clear outline on the IR LED’s wide range of applications, such as imaging sensors, motion sensors, light sensors, proximity sensors, position detection systems, biometric recognition systems, and heart rate and blood oxygen monitors.

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, projects the infrared (IR) LED market value for surveillance application during 2014 reached US$94 million in its latest 2Q15 Gold Member Report - 2015 Global LED Supply and Demand Market. This recently released analysis also estimates IR LED market scale in surveillance application will furthermore come to US$120 million for 2015. 

Chapter 3: PSS specification trend, major equipment vendors in LED and handheld industries Chapter 4: Major 29 sapphire manufacturers movement are stressed, covering capacity, major customers, business status. Amongst, 12 Chinese sapphire manufacturers are covered. Chapter 5: imprint PSS price trend are included

Published Date: June 2015 Format: PDF Language: Chinese / English

The scale of the global market for commercial LED lighting continues to grow with the development outlook for light tubes and troffer/panel lights very positive, says LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The latest analysis by LEDinside in its Silver Member Report: Commercial Lighting Sector’s Light Tubes and Integrated Luminaires estimates that the scale of the global market for all LED lighting products will reach US$25.65 billion in 2015. And within this market, the light tube and troffer/panel lights will make up US$3.44 billion and US$450 million respectively. Both categories are currently seeing stable market growth. 

Intense market competition from Chinese manufacturers has driven down profits for LED manufacturers, cost efficient technologies and getting the most out of cost/performance ratios has driven LED chip technologies to ever new economic developments.

On March 31, a consortium of investors led by GO Scale Capital announced they have bought LED manufacturer Philips Lumileds from its parent company Royal Philips. Under this agreement, GO Scale Capital will pay Royal Philips US$3.3 billion for an 80.1% stake in its automotive lighting and LED components business, and the remaining 19.9% stays under Royal Philips. The transaction is scheduled to wrap up in the third quarter of 2015, pending regulatory approval and ratification of transaction terms. Following the deal, the LED and automotive business will operate under the name “Lumileds”. 

LED lighting developed rapidly in Southeast Asia thanks to its infrastructure construction, which was promoted by the development and impact from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to LEDinside, a research subsidiary of global research institute TrendForce. ASEAN is an inter-governmental international organization gathering countries in Southeast Asia. Established in 1967, ASEAN covers a population of approximately 618 million people, covering a land area of 4.48 million km², with abundant natural resources, and it is one of the world's fastest growing economic regions.

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reports that industrial lighting has a decisive weight in the entire lighting market. LEDinside has released its latest “1Q15 Silver Member Market Report - Industrial Lighting and High Bay Markets”, which shows an intense level of price competition in the market for LED replacement lighting products, including LED light bulbs and light tubes sold in retail stores. More and more LED lighting vendors hope to capitalize on the situation by entering the industrial lighting sector. Based on LEDinside’s forecast, LED industrial lighting market scale will be worth US$2.366 billion in 2015 and by 2018 the scale will reach US$3.935 billion. 

LEDinside Chief Analyst Market Seminar 2015, was successfully held in Shenzhen Marco Polo Hotel located in Shenzhen, Guandong Province, China on Jan. 9, 2015. HC SemiTek was the honored title sponsor of this year’s seminar. LEDinside analysts shared their latest research findings on the LED industry, and an unprecedented number of industry elites gathered at this year’s hall.

The installed base for ‘smart’ street light luminaires is set to grow rapidly, with network controlled nodes set to rise from 2 million today to 40 million by 2019, finds ABI Research.

Epistar Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Board of Directors held simultaneous meetings to approve the sale of all shares of TMSC Solid State Lighting (TSMC SSL)  to Epistar at NT$ 1.46 per share, with the total price amounts to NT$ 825 million. Epistar will control 94% of TSMC SSL holdings after this acquisition. While TSMC will completely relinquish its control of TSMC SSL, the business operations will be jointly manned by the present TSMC SSL team and Epistar personnel.

The shipped amount of ceiling light in 2014 accounts for 38% of the total shipment value of all lights in China lighting E-commerce market, ranking first place with the highest shipments among all lighting products, according to the latest “2015 Chinese Lighting E-commerce Market Analysis” released by LEDinside, a research subsidiary of the Taipei-based market intelligence company TrendForce.

Major lighting brands in the Chinese lighting market are active in the e-commerce market and expanding online channels, according to a new research report by LEDinside, a division of the Taiwan-based market intelligence firm TrendForce. Competition is fierce in the burgeoning Chinese online market. The top four brands in terms of market share are Opple, NVC, Philips and Aozzo.

LED lighting has entered the state of cutthroat battlefield, and manufacturers are seeking new Blue Ocean Strategy. LED automotive lighting has a relatively higher gross margin compared with other traditional LED applications, attracting many Taiwanese LED makers to start planning to enter the automotive-use LED lighting field. Duff Lu, research manager at LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, indicates that even though automotive-use LED certification periods are long and the entry barrier for entering the supply chain is high, but its overall market revenue from 2014-2018 has a compounded growth rate of 9%. In particular, the daytime running lamp (DRL) and high-low beam headlights (H/L Beam) have compounded annual production values of 21% and 48% respectively; they are two major production applications to be watched. 

In recent years, the LED lighting market has blossomed in emerging countries, and manufacturers’ development strategies in these markets have become increasingly important. This is mainly because in mature markets, such as Europe and Japan, global traditional luminaire brands still have the greatest market share. While in highly competitive countries, such as China where it appears profitable, many manufacturers have been unable to reap profits.

Will Russia become the next Pure Land for the LED industry? Or is it a market full of unknown risks? Could it be a paradise for foreign manufacturers? Or is it market full of threats? Out of potential emerging markets, LEDinside analysts have chosen the Russian market for “further studies”. Why not Southeast Asia, Middle East, or South America? What is so special about Russia that the LED lighting industry “should not” miss out?