Formosa Epitaxy Revenue Hits New High in March

Formosa Epitaxy Revenue Hits New High in March

F.R. Chien, chairman of LED chipmaker Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI), believes that the company's monthly revenue hit a new historic high in March this year, with sales recording quarterly increases.

Chien bases this performance on several factors, including orders that the company received from American and European LED-lighting heavyweights in March and the shipping of flip-type chips to Samsung on a wafer basis instead of a chip basis. He stresses that orders from lighting manufacturers have increased considerably, leading him to predict that lighting LED sales will grow to over 40% of the company's total revenue this year.

Asked why his company's revenue contracted 9.6% in 2013 to NT$4.3 billion (US$146 million at US$1:NT$30) while domestic industry peers such as the Epistar Corp., Genesis Photonics Inc., and Teckcore Co. were booming, Chien replied that the slump was due mostly to a bumpy changeover of some products to lighting applications.

He stressed that the company has recently adjusted its product mix and that the slowdown will not continue this year. One bright spot is the company's vigorous efforts to market its chips to LED streetlight manufacturers.

Chien recently attended the grand opening of streetlight maker Leadray Energy Co.'s Taipei office, and says that his company has a good chance to become a chip supplier to Leadray (which has previously sourced mainly from foreign suppliers), given Leadray's cost concerns and his own firm's upgraded technology.

Leadray executives say that they are in talks with foreign buyers about potential orders for 200,000 streetlights, and with Taiwanese buyers about potential orders for 150,000 streetlights.

Chien predicts that the market penetration of LED lighting will surge to 60-70% within five years, thanks to efforts by multinational lighting players like Philips to cut the cost of their LED lamps. He forecasts that the price of 8W and 10W LED bulbs will slip below that of spiral-type compact fluorescent lamps within two years. (KL)