Taiwan Delta Electronics has announced to boom its LED lighting production capacity by 150% in 2013 to cater for brisk demand.

According to the company, its weekly shipments of LED lamps in April have risen three times from March and its production lines will be inundated with orders at least through July, mainly benefiting from Taiwan’s spectacular hikes of electricity rates enforced on May 15.

In addition, Delta is in talks with several Japanese buyers over fresh orders for the lamps. The company’s executives expected more contracts from Japan this year as Japan’s electrical power supply would be 20-30% short of demand this year.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will put up NT$100 billion (US$3.4 billion at US$1: NT$29) as a fund for loaning or subsidizing enterprises’ procurements of energy-saving equipment, including LED lamps. Also, the government will invest NT$2.7 billion (US$95 million) to replace the 326,000 traditional streetlights around the island with LED lamps in three years and all traditional emergency exit lamps on the island will be replaced by LED lights by the end of this year, aiming at saving 143 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

Benefited from new electricity rates, industry executives estimated it would help boost penetration rate of LED bulbs in Taiwan to 30% in one and a half years, elevating the lamps to mainstream position in Taiwan’s lighting market in 2015.