Everlight predicts that rising demand for LED TVs worldwide and LED lighting would likely bring new life to the troubled LED industry in 2012 and lift the company’s factory utilization.

According to company spokesman Liu Pang-yen stated during a teleconference, with the industrial recovery, Everlight’s factory utilization would rise gradually over the next few quarters from the current 60 percent to about 70 percent. In his opinion, LED TV and LED lighting would be the two major drivers for the whole LED industry this year.

As Liu citing some market researcher’s forecast, the LED TV penetration rate is expected to jump to 70 percent this year from 43 percent in 2011, helped by sales of low-cost LED TV sets, primarily in emerging markets. Liu pointed out that “As the price of low-cost LED TV sets, launched by a South Korean firm lately, is close to that of LCD TV sets, we believe that will provide a good chance to boost the penetration of LED TVs.”

Additionally, the company estimated that the penetration rate of LED lighting would grow to 25 percent in 2015, from 3 percent in 2011. Liu said the new LED lighting business would account for 15 percent of Everlight’s total revenue in 2012, up from 9 percent last year, maintaining his earlier estimate from August last year, after the firm launched its own-brand LED lighting including street lamps in July last year. But he also thought the price of LED products and services would continue to show double-digit percentage annual drops.