China’s LED package market grew 19% Year-on-Year (YoY) to US $8.6 billion in 2014, according to LEDinside’s 2015 Global Sapphire and LED Chip Market Report. The lighting market has been the major growth momentum for the industry, as the LED commercial lighting and residential lighting market penetration rates soar, it has continued to stimulate market growth.

Chinese LED manufacturer Unilumen recently announced it has cancelled plans of acquiring a foreign firm for US $300 million, according to a cnledw.com report.

A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) have strong antibacterial effect on major foodborne pathogens, and are most effective when in cold temperatures (between 4°C and 15°C) and mildly acidic conditions of around pH 4.5.

An ideal track lighting solution for challenging applications, WAC Lighting unveils the latest Paloma lighting design, a museum-quality LED luminaire with an adjustable LED beam angle that ranges between 15 and 60 degrees using easy and convenient fingertip control.

It usually can be costly to transform your favorite sneakers into flashy LED ones, but Blinky Shoes is offering a much more economic DIY version for upgrading your Converse or Nike sneakers into a brightly colored shoe.

Madame Zingara’s unique South African travelling theatrical experience is reinventing itself in bigger, better and more opulent surroundings than ever before. The installation of the custom built, triple story speigelpaleis, known as the Queen of Flanders” on Cape Town’s Grand Parade offers the creative energies of the Madame Zingara team even more scope to dazzle and astound their audiences.“The Celebration” is the culmination of 15 years of the dinner cirque’s fantastical journey and looks set to live up to every bit of hype around it.

Huntkey Enterprise Group has expanded its product lines with a series of consumer electronic products, including power banks and LED lights.

Further details of Ledman’s acquisition of a Chinese LED luminaire company has finally been confirmed today.

The global market value from the external sales of LED chips grew 18% from US$3.677 billion in 2013 to US$4.35 billion in 2014, according to the 2015 Global Sapphire and LED Chip Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The share of Chinese companies in the external sales market also rose from 27% in 2013 to 36% in 2014. 

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, today announced that Hubbell Lighting, a division of Hubbell Incorporated has joined its LED Luminaires and Retrofit Bulbs Licensing Program. Through membership of its open Licensing Program, Hubbell Lighting, Inc. will benefit from Philips’ patented and leading-edge innovations in LED control and system-level technologies.

“PEA presents EcoLightTech Asia 2015” will be held together with “C-Tech 2015” and “SolarTech 2015” during19-21 November 2015 at 10.00-18.00 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand.

Royal Philips  announced the appointment of Andy Ho as Chief Executive Officer for Greater China per November 2, 2015, succeeding Patrick Kung, who will retire on December 31, 2015. To ensure a seamless transition, Mr. Ho will join Philips on August 3, 2015, as Executive Vice President, Royal Philips, reporting to Philips CEO Frans van Houten. Mr. Ho joins Philips from IBM Corp., where he has held a wide range of sales, technology and senior management roles across Greater China, Canada and the United States in a career spanning over 30 years. His latest roles at IBM were General Manager for Greater China North and, subsequently, General Manager Technology Partnership and Strategic Alliances for Greater China.

Cree announces the new XLamp® XHP35 family of LEDs with 50 percent more light output than Cree’s previous highest-performing single-die LED, setting a new performance standard for the 3.5mm footprint. Built on Cree’s SC5 Technology™ platform, the XHP35 LED introduces Cree’s breakthrough high-voltage power die architecture, empowering manufacturers to unleash the full capacity of extreme high power LEDs using existing drivers. The new XHP35 LED delivers up to 1,833 lumens without the optical inefficiencies of a multi-die LED to enable new designs with reduced size and lower system costs.

When working in the world of live television production, the lighting rig stands at the forefront called upon to provide a wide variety of creative looks. Nowhere is this more important than on two of television’s most-watched events, the Grammy and Academy Awards, where both productions showcase a number of artists with individual lighting needs. As a veteran of both productions, lighting director and programmer Andy O’Reilly knows exactly what it takes to bring all these performances to life, and this year, he and his team got to do so with the assistance of VL4000 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

Some 140 GLP impression X4 series fixtures were out in force at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC 2015) which took place at the 16,000 capacity Wiener Stadthalle in Austria.

Intermatic Incorporated, a leader in energy management solutions, today announced the offering of the PX50 Safety Transformer for pool and spa use.

China’s A-shares started off with a strong rebound this week, after plunging to an all-time low last Thursday and Friday. In the short term, A shares are stabilizing on the market. Many listed LED manufacturers that suspended trade to avert impacted by the volatile stock market have gradually resumed trade. More than 350 listed Chinese companies resumed trade as of Monday, according to latest statistics.

To protect investors rights, San’an Opto suspended trade on the Chinese bourse on July 8, 2015, due to the uncertain outcome of an important company decision that potentially could have impacted its stock performance. The company explained the trade suspension was to ensure all information was transparent, open and fair.

Nationstar announced Monday it will be acquiring electronic manufacturer Guangdong Desheng company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guangsheng, for RMB 250 million (US $40.60 million).

Upon the request of Nichia Corporation ("Nichia"), the Munich District Court granted a preliminary injunction dated 25 June 2015 in the case 21 O 10999/15. In this decision, Mr. Bernd Kammerer and Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. are, on penalty of an administrative fine of up to EUR 250,000 (US $ 275,169), prohibited from making in business transactions for purposes of competition the following statements as made by Kammerer in a press interview published on //www.elektroniknet.de/optoelektronik/ledlighting/artikel/120231/:

Plessey Semiconductors announced today that it will be leading a GBP1.3 million government funded project in conjunction with AIXTRON and Bruker Nano Surfaces Division. This project will accelerate high volume manufacturing of Plessey’s innovative LEDs created with GaN-on-Silicon technology at its Devon based manufacturing site.

Monocrystal, a global leader in synthetic sapphire growing and processing, recently produced the world’s first 300 kg KY crystal.

Bringing 10% higher efficacy and unmatched “punch” to its extensive range of chip-on-board LEDs, Lumileds delivers even better options for designers of spotlights and downlights.

Providing widespread light distribution with market-leading efficacy, MaxLite presents LED Barn Lights as a perfect energy-efficient replacement for high-pressure sodium or metal halide fixtures in yards, driveways, barns, docks and other areas requiring ample lumen output and coverage.

Energesco Solutions, a leading provider of energy and water conservation measures to the commercial and multifamily real estate industry in the Mid-Atlantic region, announces its award of exclusive contracts by utility companies Pepco and SMECO (Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative) to provide energy efficiency and water conservation improvements to multifamily properties in Pepco's and SMECO's service areas throughout the state of Maryland. Both contracts were awarded under the Commercial Multifamily Program, a newly announced energy efficiency rebate program designed to support the EmPOWER Maryland initiative.

According to LEDinside’s latest report Nichia once again has the greatest market share in China’s LED package market in 2014, while U.S. LED manufacturer Cree rankings drop to fourth place. Some of the important picks for last week include the impact from China’s volatile stock market on Chinese LED manufacturers. Several major Chinese LED manufacturers including San’an Opto have suspended trade on the Chinese bourse, due to upcoming acquisitions or repurchase company shares to stabilize bourse performance.

Leading LED small pitch display manufacturer Leyard, has seen continual growth in the industry as the company reaps benefits from transforming its LED plant into a wholly automated production line, according to an industry insider.

In its latest fiscal report for first half of 2015, Absen Opto announced its net profit has declined compared to the same period a year before.

Chinese LED manufacturer Ledman announced it is planning to acquire a new LED luminaire company as of July 8, 2015.

Flash LEDs in smartphones have evolved from being a “marketing gimmick” to “standard equipment.” LED usage in smartphones have also jumped up from single to dual flash LEDs, and it is increasingly common for flash LEDs to be found in latest smartphone models.