United States, Japan and South Korea threatened Japan's leading position in the LED Market

"Edison invented the light bulb after 130 years, white LED became a striking force of a revolution in the. This revolution is making the field of quiet lighting technology changes. Although Japanese companies used to dominate the global white LED market, but now the European and American companies are rapidly catching up. The gap between Japan and South Korea and Taiwan, the industry is also shrinking, in the field of LED large investment in Jin Lingxin's competitors show amazing growth rate. Japan is facing the threat of promising LED, "said Minamikawa, vice president of iSuppli Japan, Akira. He believes that the fate of the Japanese semiconductor industry worse, because of its lack of decisive action.

Not long ago, the survey also showed that Japanese manufacturers dominate the white LED market. Nichia (Nichia) accounted for more than 60% of the global market, ranked second in the Toyoda Gosei accounted for about 20%. Japanese companies accounted for more than 90% of the total supply of white LED.

But recently the situation has changed significantly. According to a survey of iSuppli company, Nichia share is reduced by half, down to 30%, while Toyoda Gosei fell below 10%. At the same time, the German OSRAM and the United States Cree ranking rose to second and third, respectively. Taiwan manufacturers running behind, trying to squeeze into the first phalanx.

In South Korean manufacturers, Samsung and LG are currently ranked more than after, announced the expansion of the production of large-scale investment plans. Once their new plant put into operation, will jump into the ranks of first-line manufacturers.

According to iSuppli, the white LED market in 2004 was about $2 billion in size and is expected to grow to $4 billion by 2012, to more than $9 billion by 2020.

White LED will be widely used on various occasions, from residential, office and store lighting, until LCD TV backlight and automotive lighting. Africa and other regions, as well as 1 billion people do not have a light bulb available, when the LED lighting into these areas, the market will certainly become very large.

At present, the majority of white LED is a combination of blue LED and yellow phosphorescent agent. A famous blue LED patent lawsuit between the United States University of California professor Shuji Nakamura with his former employer Nichia, out of court settlement has been reached, Nichia only to Nakamura a little more than $8 million to pay about $200 million, far below the requirements. The Nakamura of Japanese enterprises greatly disappointed, especially for Nichia brood on leaving the United States finally. This raises fears of brain drain in japan. About the blue LED production Nichia patent expires, then the world manufacturers will begin mass production of white LED.

Why Japanese companies are losing control of the global market, Minamikawa explained: "enterprise indecision, can not make bold investment decisions, when the business opportunities will be confused. Although they claim that their plans are very cautious, the reality is that they have been beaten by more rapid overseas competitors. With the decline in the status of Japanese manufacturers in the IT and consumer electronics market, they do not have the financial strength of strategic investment in the semiconductor field. "

However, faced with the threat of overseas trade, the Japanese companies have rallied, and developed an investment plan. Nichia announced, will build a new factory in the city of four. SHARP's two factories are converting, from the production of IC into production LED. Toshiba plans to invest more than 30 billion yen ($300 million) on LED, including the construction of a new plant. MITSUBISHI chemical also made it clear that intends to expand the production of white LED chips.

Insiders of a device manufacturer have a calm view of this lively scene: even if Japanese companies decided to invest in white LED, they will also be difficult to buy equipment. MOCVD is the key equipment for the production of LED, and only two major MOCVD system vendors: Aixtron in Germany and the United States Veeco. Japanese equipment manufacturers (Taiyo Nippon Sanso, Dayang acid) to most Japanese manufacturers supply LED MOCVD system, the lack of sufficient capacity to meet the demand. The limited number of equipment on the market, it is difficult to buy. More than and 150 sets of equipment has been ordered by South Korean samsung. The industry's argument is that only in the market to buy second-hand equipment. "