EVERLIGHT’s Market Strategy in the Post LED Lighting Era

Diminishing size of the annual Guangzhou International Lighting Fair in China was first observed in June 2015, but the extent of the shrinking fair accelerated in 2016. Despite fewer international companies displaying their products at the annual show this year, it still attracted a large number of visitors. In the LED industry where large manufacturers are constantly switching businesses, staying or leaving the industry are all market strategies to embrace market changes. LEDinside had the opportunity to interview Pang Yen Liu, General Manager Production Business Group Sales and Marketing Greater China of EVERLIGHT at the show recently.

EVERLIGHT deploys diverse market strategies following rebounding market conditions

China’s LED package market in 2015 achieved merely 2% growth to reach US $8.8 billion, according to LEDinside’s latest statistics. In 2016, lighting manufacturers were restocking to meet their demands, resulting in significant uptick in LED chip manufacturers utilization capacity rates. All these indicate the LED market rebounded, and by 2016 the LED package market is expected to inch up another 5% YoY to reach US $9.3 billion.

EVERLIGHT’s financial performance for first quarter of 2016 indicates industry conditions are improving, with revenues climbing up to NT $6.05 billion (US $186.75 million). Despite the decline of 3.9% YoY compared to the same period in 2015, the company’s gross margin reportedly reached 25%, setting a historical new high for the last five quarters.

“EVERLIGHT’s current production capacity is 4.8 trillion LEDs, and is expanding its production capacity to about 5.8 trillion,” said Liu. “LEDs for fine pitch to mid pitch display applications, flash lights, and other consumer products combined amount to 30% of production capacity, followed by IR LED’s 25%, backlight  applications 19%, 20% for lighting and the remaining 6% for automobile lighting.”

Increasing market competitiveness with optimized product models

Fine pitch LED displays are becoming increasingly valued on the market, where the pitch decreased from 2.5 pitch to 2.0 pitch, said Liu. Displays with a pitch under 2.0 usually employ 1010 LED, 0808 LED or even smaller 0606 and 0505 LEDs. EVERLIGHT is the world’s leading supplier of high quality LEDs for fine pitch display applications. In 2015, EVERLIGHT’s fine pitch LED display reported 8% revenue share. The future outlook of EVERLIGHT’s fine pitch LED displays and its market positions, indicates it has large market potential. To meet various application market demands, EVERLIGHT has expanded fine pitch LED display production capacity from 600 million LEDs to 1 trillion LEDs in third quarter of 2016, and will consider further scaling up its production capacity.

EVERLIGHT’s DOB LED products are assembled using its 2835 LED series products, which offer diverse wattage, sizes, and shapes. Model options available include round sizes ofφ33, φ90, while square models include 33x33 mm, 50x50 mm and 180x80 mm. The company’s DOB can be easily assembled, cuts driver costs and possesses dimming advantages, which are suitable for downlights, ceiling lights, and LED bulb application requirements.

EVERLIGHT is mainly releasing its products in Europe and U.S., since big retailer brands in these markets have their own LED bulb brands, but are unfamiliar with the supply chain, said Liu. As a result these companies purchase semi-finished products to assemble and manufacture locally.

EVERLIGHT possesses comprehensive lighting component solutions including 0.2W, 0.5W and 1.0W LED products, with 3V, 6V, 9V and 18V options. The company also has highly efficient LED luminaires with high voltages 24V, 30V, and high CRI performances greater than 90, R9>50 models.

EVERLIGHT is developing cost effective solutions for its 2835 LED series, by replacing big LED chips with parallel series of small LED, said Liu. This solution is more economic because the smaller LED chips have higher yield rates and are less costly compared to large LED chip solutions. Hence, EVERLIGHT’s 0.5W 2835 LEDs use twodie package, while its 1W 2835 LED employs a tridie package. This changes the product structure, but can still achieve the same effects while lowering the cost. The latter product has received more market attention.

RGBW LED stage lights in 2016 showcased the first RGBW LED package series products, which is comprised of integrating four LED chips into a single package, with a wavelength ranging from 450-650 nm. These lights include red, green, blue, and white, can achieve full range of color mixing. A single LED chip can be driven to 700 mA, and can maintain high quality brightness under high power current. The beam angle is 130°, while possessing color control system that can be customized to meet personal preferences.

EVERLIGHT expands emerging market deployment

In the automotive lighting sector, the company new products on the market are targeting DRL, turn lights and brake light applications. The company has went on to released new high power LED series, 3030CLU(AM), for exterior automotive lighting applications. The white, PC-amber, red and super red LEDs uses highly reflective ceramic packages with gold gilded leadframes. The company’s LED products for headlight applications include 4-chip and 5-chip package models, such as the Headlamp2 5-chip LEDs, dashboards, and other interior automotive applications. The company has also released PLCC6 packaged 67-63U(AM), which utilizes gold’s sulfur resistance properties. The three-LED packaged chip has a much smaller size, and advantages in RGB. Additionally, the LED design optimizes efficiency, convenience and delivering seamless color conversion performance.

EVERLIGHT’s comprehensive automotive lighting product line up, and large shipment volume, reported Liu. In 2015, the sector underwent double digit growth, which the company estimates will continue into 2016. Automotive headlights present the highest technology entry level, which the company is currently working on.

The company released seven types of UV LED products, where five models are UVA LEDs with power output of 0.08W to 1.8W. High power UV LEDs feature small beam angle options of 120 degrees; 50 degrees; and 30 degrees. Another two UVC LED models are ELUC and ELUMC that have power performance of 2mW and 20 mW and a beam angle of 120 degrees

Infrared LED has been EVERLIGHT’s cash cow, claiming 25% revenue share in 2015, and its revenue is projected to reach 27% in 2016. The company’s products in these sectors continued to grow. The company is focusing on sweepers and optical touch panel solutions because of its large volume applications. Moreover, there is security and VR sector which witnessed significant breakthrough in 2016. The company’s IR LED production capacity is currently 350 million, with the goal of further expanding production capacity to 100 million by 2016.

It can be observed, the rebounding lighting market has halted falling LED chip prices, and stabilized LED package prices. As the LED industry enters a mature phase, market competitiveness of maturing declined, and technology advancements in new fields or market strategies will become key to improving LED manufacturers market competitiveness.