B.J. Lee, chairman of Epistar,at a shareholders’ conference held late September, estimated 2013 would remain a tough year for the LED industry as a whole, constraining the manufacturers’ revenue climbing at least until 2014. He projected most of the manufacturers to maintain 2013 revenues at their 2012 levels at the best. Overcapacity still haunts LED backlight suppliers Lee felt that overcapacity will still haunt LED backlight suppliers into 2013, at which time he estimated LED penetration on backlight market would hit peak. LED’s lighting ...

Taiwan Epistar’s board of directors has agreed with a proposal to acquire Huga Optotech Inc. as its wholly owned subsidiary by all-stock swap at ratio of one Epistar share for 4.85 Huga shares. Baseline date for the swap is tentatively set at Dec. 28 in 2012. Both companies will bring the deal to an irregular shareholders meeting on Sept. 28 for vote. Industry executives said the deal, estimated at NT$4 billion (US$133 million at US$1:NT$30), is conducive to minimizing the disorder of the upstream sector of Taiwan’s LED industry. Epistar executiv...

Taiwan major LED makers have reported to set up a new record in May revenues, resulting from mounting penetration of LCD TVs lit by LED backlights and demands for LED lighting fueled by Taiwan’s electricity rate hikes, which will take effect on June 10. Orders have inundated Epistar’s production lines, inspiring outlooks that the company’s sales will continue rising in June. The company has distributed excessive orders to affiliated Huga Optotech Inc. Epistar saw its May revenue hit one-year high of NT$1.65 billion (US$57 million at US$1:...

As 2012 comes, Taiwan LED industry looks forward to a Healthy Year in 2012,and some manufactures have started to revive. Huga Optotech ended unpaid furlough practice when New Year comes, signaling that Taiwan’s LED industry is getting out of its worst days. Its Taiwan’s only publicly held LED maker to have its employees take unpaid leaves in October, 2011, to cope with slumping market for backlights. Huga Optotech’s president, C.N. Huang, pointed out that the firm decided to end the practice in late December in anticipation that market would pic...

Recently ,due to the slackened demand in LED industry, including Huga Optotech, Everlight have asked their staffs to carry out unpaid leave. According to Robert Yeh , chairman of Everlight, due to the high inventory level, the LED industry has entered an off season. Everlight staffers will take two to three days of unpaid leave in November and five days in December. The unpaid leave gives Everlight the flexibility to skip a layoff program. In the contrast, Epistar reported that it won’t follow the practice of Everlight. Neither did Chimei-Innolux have the...

AIXTRON AG announced a repeat order for multiple MOCVD reactors from existing customer HUGA Optotech. The order comprises a double-digit number of AIX G5 HT 14x4-inch configuration deposition systems. HUGA Optotech placed the order in the course of 2010 and after delivery of the systems between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, they will be used for the production of GaN-based materials for ultra-high brightness (UHB) blue LEDs.

It’s reported that Taiwan-based LED chip maker Huga Optotech was accused by patent licensing company Bluestone Innovations, because Bluestone thought Huga had infringed upon its intellectual property in Group III-V nitride production process. Huga was seeking legal council to decrease the impact on its operation.