LED packaging services providers in Taiwan saw their market share in China decline last year because of increased competition from foreign rivals, in particular from Japan and South Korea, with Chinese companies maintaining their dominance there, LEDinside said in a research report.
Taiwanese LED packaging services companies generated US$638 million in sales in China last year, down 1 percent from a year earlier, and their market share there fell 2 percentage points to 9 percent, LEDinside said.
During the same period, revenue generated by LED packaging services providers from Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US rose 40 percent year-on-year to US$2 billion, the data showed.
These foreign providers took a 28 percent share in the China market last year, up from 24 percent a year earlier, the figures showed.
LEDinside said the strongest competitors were companies from South Korea and Japan such as Seoul Semiconductor Co and Tokushima-based Nichia Corp, which won major orders from LED lighting manufacturers in China with the help of their large patent portfolios.
The research group said these South Korean and Japanese competitors established themselves last year as the leaders in China’s high-end LED packaging market.
Chinese firms grabbed a 63 percent share of the China LED packaging services market last year, down from 65 percent a year earlier, the report said, despite a 15 percent year-on-year increase in sales to US$4.5 billion.
The sales figure was lower than expected because of a sharp drop in average unit prices, but several Chinese packaging services providers, such as MLS Co (木林森), Foshan Nationstar Optoelectronics Co (佛山國星光電) and Hongli Opto-Electronic Co (鴻利光電), outperformed their rivals, indicating that they have upgraded their technology to become more competitive.
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