Backlight applications rise global LED investment momentum continued to 2011

After the semiconductor industry is out of recession, 2010 is destined to be a record year for the industry. Recent market forecasts this year, sales revenue will grow by 30%, sales and shipments will hit a record high. In addition, SEMI World Forecast is expected this year, semiconductor wafer plant spending will grow by 117%, more than the level of 2008 in. These are exciting news, but there is a more eye-catching than the overall semiconductor market highlights: led.

LED and solid state lighting is the two bright spot market, attracting a lot of attention and investment. Driven by the LED backlight LCD display and the potential of the huge general lighting market, LED demand will erupt in the next few years. The tight supply of the market and the enormous potential of many manufacturing plants and capacity planning suddenly emerged worldwide.

The number of new plants exceeds other areas

According to the SEMI Fab Watch report, in 2009 there were 85 professional LED plants (including epitaxy and chip) in the world in Opto/LED. This year the number will grow to 94. From the current plan announced by the manufacturers, next year will be at least 11 new factories on the line.

From the geographical point of view, the Taiwan area has the largest number of LED plants. However, the majority of new factories in mainland China, the main reason is that some local governments to subsidize the purchase of MOCVD equipment, as well as a lot of direct investment in the case of the new plant. It is worth noting that most of these LED plant is invested by the Taiwan LED manufacturers.

Capacity showed two digit growth

According to our current forecast, this year's global LED production capacity will grow by 33% next year will grow by 27%, up to $1 million 392 thousand per month (equivalent to 4 inches). Its growth rate is significantly higher than the overall growth of the semiconductor industry.

In these capital expenditures, equipment spending will grow by nearly 3 times, from $480 million in 2009 to $1 billion 300 million in 2010, a record high. This is mainly due to the rapid rise of LED backlight applications. Investment momentum is expected to continue in 2011, will exceed $1 billion 300 million this year.

LED will supply exceeds demand?

Aggressive investment has always been an oversupply of concerns and market uncertainty, LED market is no exception. With all new capacity on line, terminal market demand must be quickly followed up. On the one hand, it is reported that this year, the supply of equipment and materials will be limited, such as the shortage of sapphire substrate and MOCVD delivery extension, so capacity growth may be affected. On the other hand, demand for general lighting appears to be growing faster than expected. Combined with these two points, the market supply and demand is likely to be balanced.