Earlier this morning, LED stocks on Taiwan’s bourse riveted from market rumors surrounding China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) plans of raising LED tariffs, but LED manufacturers have refuted receiving any related government notices.

A UDN report claimed the LED stocks in Taiwan fell on market rumors from China that the MOC intends to scale up LED tariffs from 4 to 10 percent after finding international LED manufacturers had monopolized the market.

The claim has been refuted by LED manufacturers Epistar, HCSemitek and Jufei Optoelectronics, who all denied receiving any notices from the Chinese government regarding the matter.

In an interview with Taiwan media, Epistar Spokesperson Rider Chang noted the company’s LED chips sold to China were tariff-free, and they had not received any notices from Chinese officials about higher LED tariffs.  

“All I’ve heard is market rumors, I’m not sure what all this is about,” HC Semitek Vice President Difei Bian told LEDinside.

Jinghuang Yin, Secretary of the Board at Jufei Optoelectronics also said he did not know anything about the tariff rumor during an interview with LEDinside.

Top Taiwanese LED manufacturers including Epistar, Lextar, Everlight and Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) stock performance were irregular on Thursday morning. On average Taiwanese manufacturers stock prices were down by six percent, according to the UDN report. Epistar, FOREPI and GPI stock value fell 6.97 percent, 6.76 percent and 6.09 percent respectively.

In contrast, competing Chinese manufacturers stock prices had slightly gone up. Juefei Optoelectronics (10.02 percent), HC Semitek (7.36 percent), Leyard (7.61 percent), and others saw stock prices climb up by more than seven percent, while Honglitronics 6.61 percent. Other Chinese LED manufacturers including San’an Opto, Changelight, Refond and  also saw slight increase in stock prices.