The leading Japanese LED producer, Nichia Corporation released the news that the company decided to expand LED production capacity by building a new plant in response to the increasing demands of lighting and backlight LEDs as well as the applications for automotive use and others.

(Image: Nichia)

The new capacity will be established in the Naruto factory area in Tokushima. The construction will begin in August 2018 and is expected to finish by the end of May in 2020 with the estimated cost of JPY 16 billion (US$144.54 million). The new plant is scheduled to start running in October 2020 and with the new capacity added, Nichia plans to double the production of Naruto factory in 2021.

According to the report of Nikkei Asian Review, the major revenue of Nichia depends on white LED. However, Nichia has strategically intensified its momentum in high margin LED products including automotive lighting and LCD as LED makers in Taiwan and China have extended their capacity which led to severe price competition of the market of white LED.

Sources of the industry have indicated that Nichia’s 0.3t LED chips will be adopted in the backlight of the new iPhone’s LTPS-LCD panels which enable a narrower bezel of 2.0-2.5mm for the new iPhone.

With its business strategies covering a wide range of LED products, Nichia expects the revenue of 2018 will be JPY 420 billion (US$3.79 billion) with a growth of 21% YoY.