Taiwan’s LED chipmakers and chip packagers posted a drop in revenue ranging between 3 percent and 23 percent for last month compared with the previous month as demand slackened in the industry’s off-season.
Everlight Electronics Co (億光電子), the nation’s top LED chip packager, said its sales fell 9.94 percent to NT$1.33 billion (US$45.66 million) last month compared with NT$1.48 billion the previous month. The figure represents 3.91 percent annual growth.
For the fourth quarter of last year, Everlight’s sales decreased by 3.6 percent to NT$4.31 billion compared with NT$4.47 billion in the previous quarter.
“Everlight’s sales performance during the last quarter was driven mostly by demand for street lights and decorative lights used in the Christmas and Lunar New Year holidays,” Everlight spokesman Liu Pang-yen (劉邦言) said yesterday.
This quarter’s sales are expected to grow mildly, compared with NT$3.75 billion in the same period last year, driven by rising global demand for infrared LED, SND LEDs and backlit products, Liu forecast.
This increase in demand also supported Everlight’s sales for the whole of last year, which rose 3.65 percent to NT$16.83 billion, from NT$16.24 billion in 2011, Liu said.
LED chipmaker Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) on Monday said its consolidated revenue decreased by 23 percent to NT$564 million last month from NT$721 million in the previous month.
Compared with NT$271 million in the same period in 2011, the figure represents growth of 105 percent.
Unity Opto spokesman Wong Cong-Jhih (翁聰智) blamed weaker demand for its backlit products to the decline in monthly sales.
However, Unity Opto’s overall shipments last month increased by 30 percent month-on-month as European and US clients ordered more indoor lighting products to meet increasing demand, Wong said.
For the fourth quarter of last year, Unity Opto posted sales of NT$2.18 billion, down 10.52 percent compared with the previous quarter.
Wong said Unity Opto’s sales of backlit products last year grew 70 percent, thanks to strong demand for LED televisions and consumer electronics.
For the whole of last year, Unity Opto’s revenue expanded 31 percent to NT$7.55 billion, from NT$5.76 billion in 2011.
Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子), an LED manufacturing arm of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), said its sales fell by 7.3 percent month-on-month to NT$723 million last month.
That brought the company’s fourth-quarter revenue to NT$2.36 billion, down 18.5 percent compared with the previous quarter’s NT$2.9 billion. Supported by increasing demand for direct-lit LED backlit televisions, Lextar’s overall sales last year hit a record-high NT$10.06 billion.
LED chipmaker Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s top LED chipmaker, said its sales shrank 16 percent to NT$1.14 billion last month from NT$1.37 billion a month earlier.
Last quarter, Epistar posted NT$4.03 billion in revenue, down 19 percent compared with the NT$5 billion it posted in the previous quarter.
For the whole of last year, Epistar posted NT$17.53 billion in sales, down 1.01 percent compared with NT$17.71 billion the previous year.
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