The nation’s major LED companies yesterday reported mixed results for last month, as they employed different strategies to cope with a weak global economy, which has affected consumer demand for LED TVs and lighting products.
Everlight Electronics Co (億光電子), the nation’s biggest LED chip packager, saw revenue fall 4.83 percent to NT$1.42 billion (US$47.4 million) last month from June, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Everlight attributed the decline to shorter working days, as employees went on annual leave. On an annual basis, last month’s sales grew 5.6 percent from NT$1.34 billion a year earlier.
Accumulated revenue for the first seven months of the year totaled NT$9.47 billion, down 0.97 percent from NT$9.57 billion posted the year before, the filing showed.
With order visibility remaining low, Everlight predicted that third-quarter revenue would be flat from the NT$3.31 billion recorded in the second quarter.
Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子), an LED manufacturing arm of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), said its consolidated sales edged up 1.59 percent to NT$922.78 million last month from NT$908.33 million in June. Revenue rose by a stronger 22.58 percent from NT$752.78 million a year earlier.
The company said in a statement that the sales momentum from the second quarter was carried over into last month, thanks to new backlight orders from South Korean customers and increased demand for middle-power to high-power LED lighting products.
In the first half of the year, sales to Japan and Europe saw stronger growth compared with the US market, where the entry barrier is higher because of its safety regulations, Lextar said.
“Macroeconomic factors, including the European debt problem, will continue to affect the global LED market. However, government subsidies for energy-efficient programs around the world will still support overall growth in the LED lighting market,” Lextar said in the statement.
Accumulated revenue in the first seven months ending July 31 was NT$5.54 billion, rising 16.32 percent from NT$4.76 billion the previous year, company data showed.
LED chipmaker Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) posted record-high consolidated sales of NT$784.71 million last month, up 10.44 percent from NT$710.56 million last month and 61.13 percent higher than the NT$487 million it made a year ago.
However, accumulated revenue in the first seven months of the year was still 7.71 percent lower at NT$3.64 billion compared with the previous year, the company’s filing showed.
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