Taiwan's LED Industry Forms Partnership With TCL Group

The Taiwan LED Lighting Industry Association (TLLIA) and the Taiwanese LED chipmaker, Formosa Expitaxy Inc. (FOREPI), recently announced forming a strategic partnership with the TCL Group, a major consumer-electronics manufacturer in China.

F.R. Chien, chairman of both TLLIA and FOREPI, signed the pacts with TCL on the sideline of the Photonics Festival Taiwan 2014 (PFT 2014), held June 17-19 in Taipei.

The TLLIA-TCL deal allows TCL to benefit from the integrated LED-lighting specifications that TLLIA has set in exchange for TCL's pledge to help Taiwan's LED-lighting makers develop China's vast market by using its strong presence and influence.

Founded in 1980, the group has set up operations in multimedia, communications, household appliance, real estate & financial holdings, and logistics & services worldwide, becoming China's No.1 supplier of LCD monitors, household appliances, telecommunications equipment, green-energy electronics, and logistics.

Impressed by the fast growing demand for LED lighting, the group's lighting and monitor business groups are initiating an LED lighting industry alliance in Guangdong Province to develop quality products, and share marketing skills and market intelligence.

Chien believes that the LED lighting market penetration will likely reach 70% by 2017, around three years earlier than originally planned, basing such faster-than-expected growth mostly on rapid technology development that is driving LED lighting closer to traditional light sources in color rendering, luminous efficacy and performance-price (P/P) ratio.

He says that LED lighting's average color rendering index (CRI) has advanced to 80, compared to incandescent bulb's 100, with average luminous efficacy having reached 90 lumen-per-watt in light bulbs and 110 lumen- per-watt in light tubes, almost equaling the efficacy of fluorescent lamps, with P/P ratio of  around 200 lumen-per-dollar, compared with fluorescent lamps' 200-300 lumen-per-dollar.

In the deal between TCL and FOREPI, TCL will increase orders for FOREPI LEDs used in its TVs and handsets as backlights, boosting its percentage contribution to FOREPI's revenue to 10% next year from the current 3%.

According to TCL Vice President Shi Wanwen, TCL projects to ship 21 million LCD TVs, trailing only Samsung and LG, and 80 million mobile phones worldwide this year alone. The shipments, along with LED lighting shipments being planned, will boost the group's demand for LEDs.

To deal with the thriving needs, the two companies have opened an LED packaging venture in China in partnership with Shenzhen Refond Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., China's  No.3 LED packager, with TCL holding a 49% stake, Refond a 26% and FOREPI a 25%.

The packages will use chips exclusively from FOREPI and Sanan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., China's LED chipmaker that has entered into partnership with FOREPI.

FOREPI's Chien says that in addition to TCL, Refond will also place orders with his company for handset backlight chips, adding that the company will expand capacity to keep up with strong markets in the second half of this year, in which the company's production will be running at full capacity. He also predicts the company to turn to profitability in the third quarter this year.

Chien feels that LED markets, whether for lighting, flip chips or backlights, will remain strong in the second half and says that his company's flip chips has been adopted by Samsung. (KL)