Taiwanese LED Makers Moving to Deepen Presence in Mainland China

Taipei, Dec. 24, 2009 (CENS)--Taiwan's LED (light emitting diode) makers are stepping up presences in mainland China, which is touted as the world's biggest market for LED lighting, in hope of influencing the mainland's drafting of industrial standards for the new lighting technology.

Taiwan's LED makers, including Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., Unity Opto Technology Co., Ltd., Formosa Epitaxy Inc. and Neo-Neon Holdings Ltd., are expanding their investments in the mainland and using every chance to take part in the mainland's standard-setting work for the industry.

During his stay in Taiwan in November, Lou Qinjian, China's Vice Minster of Industry and Information Technology, stressed that Taiwan and the mainland should speed up efforts to jointly set up common standards for the LED lighting industry on the two sides.

Chairman B.C. Fan of Neo-Neon, which is reportedly the world's No.1 manufacturer of decorative lights, touted that the mainland's LED lighting market would show explosive growth as soon as the standards are introduced.

Fan was born in Taiwan but has headquartered his company in Guangdong. The company is operating 21 sales outlets across the mainland. His company is working with the mainland's authorities on the standards.

Neo-Neon is said to have won contracts to supply 100,000 LED streetlights to the mainland's local governments.

To meet the mainland's robust demand, the company invested in an epi-wafer factory in 2008. The factory is designed to turn out 450 million LED chips a month for lighting purposes with five metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) chambers in initial stage. The company plans to invest in a bigger factory by the end of 2009 or early 2010 operating 30 MOCVDs.

LED packager Unity has entered into cooperation with China Putian Group to tap the mainland market.