Sapphire substrate concept stocks have soared lately on China’s A-Shares market, but major international sapphire substrate suppliers stock prices have plunged, according to a China Securities Journal article. Out of the major sapphire substrate manufacturers, U.S. company GT Advanced Technology (GTAT) stock prices were down 10 percent over the last three days, another U.S. company Rubicon also fell 7 percent during the same period, while Korean Sapphire Technology Company has dropped 8 percent over the last five days.

LED manufacturers have consecutively released their November financial reports.Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar revenue has been driven by increased shipment demands for  AlInGaP and backlight products and LED chip manufacturer Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) also showed good revenue performance in November benefiting from flip chip products.

Roshow Technology has released an abnormal stock price announcement after experiencing three days of inflation on stock prices surpassing 25 percent. The listed company does not manufacturer sapphire substrate. It expressed that rumors on the Internet claiming the company has invested a total of RMB 1.1 billion (US$?) to produce 4 million LED sapphire substrate pcs annually is false.

As part of cutting energy waste and doubling energy productivity by 2030, the Energy Department today announced nearly $10 million to support research, development, and manufacturing of solid-state lighting (SSL) technologies across the country. This funding will help accelerate the development of high-quality light-emitting diode (LED) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) products with the potential to reduce lighting energy use for American families and businesses by one half and enhance U.S. global competitiveness.

America will conclude its three-year farewell to inefficient general-purpose incandescent light bulbs on December 31, 2013, the National Lighting Bureau advises.

Merck and LG Display have entered into discussion regarding the possibilty to jointly develop a printing method for the production of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, according The Korean Times.

Eight city corporations in Bangladesh will be replacing fluorescent and sodium street lights to energy saving LED lights, according to local newspaper The Daily Star. The replacement to LED is estimated to save the province 10 megawatts (MWs) of electricity per day. In other words, additional 5,000 households can be powered every day as the lights consume less than 30 to 40 percent energy than existing lights.

Continuing with its focus on providing the best of innovation and technology, India’s leading electrical solutions manufacturer – Anchor Electricals Pvt. Ltd (A Panasonic Group Company), today opened its first state-of-the-art LED lighting showroom in Mumbai. This showroom gives consumers a ‘see, touch and feel’ experience of a diverse range of world-class home decorative lighting concepts and functions. The company will focus on residential lighting.

An ideal gift for skateboarders this Christmas might be additional LED light equipment from Third Kind. The lights come in a package with all the hardware into a kit that can be mounted in minutes, according to a Gizmag article. The package comes with a rechargeable battery pack mounts via the truck hardware, indicating skateboarders will not have to modify the board or worry about the pack from falling off. The skateboard light strips comes in a size of 51 cm (20-inches) and is stuck on the board like a sticker.

Taiwan LED secondary optical lens manufacturer LedLink consolidated revenue for November reached NT $108 million (US $3.7 million), monthly growth of 12.62 from October and up 34.14 percent from November last year. December revenue is expected to decline due to effects from stock checking.

With 4Q coming to a close, this week has seen a substantial number of companies releasing their financial reports. Financial firms, such as UBS, have also released market forecasts for 2014.

Taiwanese LED package manufacturer Edison Opto consolidated revenue for November reached NT $213 million (US $7.2 million), a monthly decrease of 2.23 percent but yearly growth of 32.2 percent. With the year drawing to a close, clients are observing the market before ordering. December revenue is forecasted to remain level.

Taiwan LED package manufacturer Unity Opto Technology (Uni) November consolidated revenue reached NT $530 million (US $18 million), a 27.93 percent slide from last November. However, revenue for November remained consistent with last month showing unusually good performance for a typically slack season. 

Taiwanese LED manufacturer Lextar’s November revenue reached NT $1.17 (US $39 million), growth of 10.1 percent from October and 49.5 percent from November last year. The company’s accumulated revenue from Jan.-Nov. was NT $12.64 billion.

PHI Group, Inc. announced that the Company has signed a business cooperation and investment agreement in conjunction with a letter of intent to acquire a 65% equity interest in Nord Energy Co. Ltd. ("NE"), a Vietnam-based company with proprietary advanced light-emitting diode (LED) lighting systems that can save 80% of electricity compared to traditional sodium lights.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. announced plans to offer $125,000,000 aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2020 (the "Notes") and 12,000,000 shares of its common stock ("Common Stock") in concurrent underwritten registered public offerings (collectively, the "Offerings"). In addition, the Company expects to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $18,750,000 aggregate principal amount of Notes and 1,800,000 shares of Common Stock from the Company, respectively. The Offerings are subject to market and other conditions.

Plessey announced today availability of its next generation GaN-on-Silicon mid-power LEDs. The product family doubles the efficacy of Plessey’s first generation MAGIC™ (Manufactured on GaN-on-Si I/C) products released in February 2013. Using standard silicon semiconductor production techniques, Plessey is able to achieve high flux output LED products at substantially lower cost. The PLW114050 is the first in a family of entry level LED lighting products that will be released. 

Power management company Eaton announced that its Cooper Lighting division has introduced the highly efficient McGraw-Edison TopTier™ parking garage and canopy luminaire. Incorporating WaveStream™ light-emitting diode (LED) technology, the fixture’s superior, patented optical control and patent-pending design improves visual comfort to enhance safety while providing maximum energy savings of up to 76 percent annually.

Larson Electronics is making it easier than ever for companies or families who want to begin the transition to LED lighting with their 10 watt Directional LED light bulb. When replacing burned out bulbs to LEDs, or direct replacement, the new Magnalight LED-A19-10-E26 will save you time and money.

Light is an essential element for urban environment, it also represents the culture and image of a city. In order to emphasize on the importance of urban lighting plan, LUCI started running the annualcity.people.light awards in conjunction with Philips Co. in 2003. The 2013 award is the 10th anniversary of this award so we compile all the winners in its history for you to take a quick and amusing glance.

Around 50 companies are expected to be listed on the Chinese bourse by the end of January, according to a statement by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on November 30th in regards to further promoting the reform of the IPO system. Among these companies, three LED companies are in the electronics industry IPO. The LED industry will be affected by the reopening of the IPO, where prospects will remain bearish in the short term while differentiating in the mid and long term, according to industry insiders.

The U.S. Department of Energy's CALiPER program has released a Snapshot Report on LED A lamps, which utilizes the LED Lighting Facts® program's extensive product database to help industry stakeholders understand the current state and trajectory of the market for that class of products.

The largest single investment to modernize main road street lighting in the Capital's history has been unveiled by the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL).

It is no surprise with LED lighting demand on the rise that Samsung Electronics would want to begin strengthening their LED business. According to Business Korea, Samsung has begun recruiting LED professionals on December 1st both domestically and internationally.

Luxury car brands including BMW, Benz and Audi are using more advanced lighting technologies in their cars, such as LED headlights, smart high beams, and infrared-assisted lights to give them a better technological edge and justify their hefty price tag, according to a recent Bloomberg report. 

Excessive heat generation is one of the main reasons why LEDs fail. With the Oslon Square, Osram Opto Semiconductors presents an LED that withstands high ambient temperatures particularly well. To ensure that the colors of several LEDs in a luminaire remain uniform even at higher temperatures, they are measured and binned at 85 degrees Celsius (°C), a temperature that comes very close to that encountered in lighting applications within buildings, in everything from spotlights to retrofit light sources.

Dow Corning, a global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, today introduced new Dow Corning® Dispensable Thermal Pads, an advanced new technology developed for more cost-effective thermal management of high-performance electronics targeting LED lamp and luminaires, data servers, telecommunications equipment and transportation applications. The new materials enable manufacturers to quickly and precisely print a layer of thermally conductive curable silicone compound in controllable thicknesses on complex-shaped substrates while ensuring excellent thermal management properties and reduced manufacturing cost.

EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, has introduced the EVG®720 automated UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) system. Providing full-field imprint lithography with an integrated soft stamp/template fabrication capability, the EVG720 system enables throughputs of more than 60 wafers per hour with the lowest cost of ownership (CoO). Capable of printing nanostructures as small as 40 nm in diameter over a large area in volume production, the EVG720 system is ideally suited for use in manufacturing optics, photonics, LEDs, and other bioMEMS devices. 

Penetration rate in 2013 for low priced direct-view type LED TVs has already increased to around 50 percent. As 2013 comes to a close, various large brand TV manufacturers are already preparing to launch new models in 2014.

The LED industry has been stuck in a oversupply situation for the past few years but 2014 will finally see the first light to equilibrium. The supply shortage situation is expected to reemerge in 2014 brought on by rising LED lighting demands, stable backlight demand, and limited production capacity expansion by LED chip manufacturers, according to a recent report from UBS. Long term orders from OEMs for large lighting manufacturers Philips and Osram will benefit non-Chinese LED chip manufacturers.