Philips Lighting announced the company’s 2018 first quarter results. “As previously indicated, the first quarter marks a soft start to the year, mainly due to a weak performance in Home, most notably in the United States. Our other three businesses further improved their operational profitability, particularly Professional which increased its adjusted EBITA margin by 310 basis points,” said Eric Rondolat, CEO of Philips Lighting. “I am pleased with the progress made on the cost side with a 13% reduction in our indirect cost base, and with our free cash flow performance after a strong fourth quarter. Our focus remains on implementing our strategy toward the shift to LED, Systems & Services.”

Numerous orders are flowing to 3D sensing component suppliers including Lumentum and Win Semiconductor because of the boom in 3D sensing in 2018. Placed by Apple and other application makers, those orders are bringing fortune to suppliers.

Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturer Epistar announced its business plan for 2018 will be around five cores—backlighting, high-end LED lighting, infrared application, automotive lighting, and innovative digital display. Ming-Chun Chou, General Manager of Epistar, stated the company will officially produce Mini LED in 2Q18 at the earliest.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 2018 LED market demand and supply analysis, automotive LED market value in 2017 was USD 2817 million, will grow 12.45% in 2018. Amongst those, the growth driver of automotive LED market will be headlamp, fog light, and automotive panel.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 2018 Global LED Digital Display and Micro LED Display Market Outlook, due to economic recession, global LED display market experienced limited growth and market demand of traditional display decreased. However, thanks to the development of LED fine pitch display in recent years, display market demand increased again. In 2017, global LED display market scale reached USD 5.092 billion. Indoor fine pitch display (≤P2.5) will continuously maintain growth after experiencing rapid development in the past few years, and the market scale in 2017 was USD 1.141 billion with CAGR of 2017-2021 is expected to reach 12%.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 2018 Light LED and LED Lighting Market Outlook, LED lighting market scale will achieve USD 32.72 billion in 2018 and will reach USD 33.3 billion in 2019 when lighting that can be replaced enter the period of saturation, while industrial, architectural and landscape, outdoor and special commercial lighting will keep on developing.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of the market research firm TrendForce, 2017-2021 LED Industry Demand and Supply Data Base- 3Q17, LED market value in 2017 is projected to increase by +7.4 %YoY to USD 17.16 billion, in the light of 2017’s trends that the LED market price stayed stable and that the automotive lighting and architectural lighting field are enlarging fast.

Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) announced Thursday about a new investment partnership with Japanese UV LED manufacturer Nikkiso to expand applications in medical devices, reported Taiwanese media UDN.

By replacing traditional luminaires with LEDs, India could save US$ 6 billion annually by 2018, said Piyush Goyal, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy in the Government of India.

Apple suppliers have revealed the Cupertino-based company will be launching an OLED iPhone in 2018, according to a latest report from Nikkei.

Latest market rumors from Korea have noted South Korean display manufacturers are trying to persuade Apple to use flexible OLED screens in its future iPhones, reported Business Korea.

EU member states have recently voted in favor of pushing back halogen bans to 2018, as lobbyist argue LED alternatives are simply not ready to meet market demands yet, reported End Europe.

LED lighting has entered the state of cutthroat battlefield, and manufacturers are seeking new Blue Ocean Strategy. LED automotive lighting has a relatively higher gross margin compared with other traditional LED applications, attracting many Taiwanese LED makers to start planning to enter the automotive-use LED lighting field. Duff Lu, research manager at LEDinside, a research division of TrendForce, indicates that even though automotive-use LED certification periods are long and the entry barrier for entering the supply chain is high, but its overall market revenue from 2014-2018 has a compounded growth rate of 9%. In particular, the daytime running lamp (DRL) and high-low beam headlights (H/L Beam) have compounded annual production values of 21% and 48% respectively; they are two major production applications to be watched. 

The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) of Thailand aims to complete upgrading high sodium pressure streetlights in the country to more energy efficient LEDs within four years, said Director Niwat Chayakul, the organization's Director of Power System and Research Development Department  told LEDinside at EcoLight Asia 2014, which took place in Bangkok, Thailand.