Sales of LED back lighting units (BLU) systems are still growing while demand for LED chips is falling, according to the European Photonics Industry Consortium’s (EPIC) LEDs: The 2011 Market Review.
This is because fewer LEDs are needed to realise a BLU and with the cost per LED dropping, revenues attributed to LEDs for each display screen are falling rapidly. EPIC’s analysis is that the production of LED based BLUs should continue to rise through 2014 but the demand for LEDs for the other edge-lit BLU products has peaked. The edge-lit BLU market is expected to settle at about 70 per cent of the total sales seen over the period 2010 to 2011.
Meanwhile the market volume of high brightness LEDs reached $12 billion in 2011, a 4.3 per cent growth over 2010. The EIPC report also includes the consortium's 'bellwether index of key companies'. It is seen by EPIC as an important indicator of the commercial development of solid-state lighting. It found that in 2011 the bellweather companies showed rather different levels of performance. Broadly chip manufacturers did less well while systems providers fared better.
The LEDs: The 2011 Market Review report, which is distributed exclusively to EPIC members, tracks the response of the lighting and display industries.
