Taiwan LED makers say the LED industry may recover earlier than other industries, with the application range of LED expected to become wider this year and more and more LEDs being installed into notebooks, monitors, LCD TVs as well as lighting fields.

Several factors have driven up the global LED industry, and for mainland China, the bright outlook mainly owes to the encouragement from the government, concluded the industry watchers.

Last year, the State Council of China had come up with 10 measures to stimulate the domestic demand, with a planned RMB 4trillion fund to be injected by the end of 2010. Half of the budget will go to infrastructure constructions of which the installation of LED streetlight consisting a major part. An estimated 2.5 million LED streetlights are to be installed in 2009.

Besides, the government’s hefty subsides for procurements of household appliances in rural areas have also pushed up the mainland’s demands for LED by 20-30% since the Chinese New Year in late January, estimated Taiwanese manufacturers.

And Low-priced notebook computers equipped with LED backlight modules are also fueling the demand, noted LED makers of mainland China. According to Topology Research Institute of Taiwan, an estimated 1.5-2 billion LEDs will go into notebook computers this year, representing a 28% penetration in notebook backlight market.

The LED manufacturers of Taiwan and mainland China are running at average capacity of 70-80%, with some already at full capacity, according to the makers themselves.