As we come into the New Year, we have to take notice of the changing landscape of the Asian lighting technology business. With many Guam based businesses looking to the region for more economical ways to reduce energy costs and illuminate their respective facilities, we all must be aware that the region's lighting business climate will take some interesting twists in 2016. Of note, the Korean lighting industry is starting to see significant shakeups.
Taiwan-based LEDInside, citing a number of reputable industry sources, is reporting that the oversupply situation in the light-emitting diode (LED) industry this past year has pushed large Korean LED companies to downsize. The market intelligence provider, reported late last month that Iljin Group intends to close down its LED chip and package business, which has faced constant losses into profit since its founding in 2008. It is reported that the company has sent its application to Seoul Central District Court as of Dec. 18, 2015, and is waiting for the judge’s final ruling. It is rumored the LED business restructure was made to avoid negatively impacting the finances of the 49 year old parent company Iljin Group
In addition, Korean company SKC is reporting that it will integrate its LED lighting business SKC Lighting back into the parent company by March 2016. SKC Lighting was established as an independent entity in September 2011, at the time SKC was bullish about the LED lighting industry’s sustainable development, but the lighting business operation flopped, and its revenue performance has been below par.
Samsung Electronics announced its plans to down size its LED business in September 2015 with their rival LG Innotec, which intended to become a leader in the LED industry has secretly sold its sapphire wafer business to Samsung Sumitomo LED Materials, a joint venture established by Samsung and Sumitomo Chem.
With Korean lighting to see some bumps in the road, the picture is better industry wide with the National Lighting Bureau (NLB) reporting today that demand for lighting equipment jumped 4.4% between the second and third quarters of 2015-the best quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2008.
“Three months ago we said that ‘lighting-equipment demand is moving in the right direction’," said NLB Executive Director John Bachner. “We’re optimistic that the next report will show continued growth over the third quarter. Our optimism has been justified; in fact, it has been more than justified. Lighting’s back!”
The dramatic improvement – a 4.8% year-over-year gain – was revealed by data developed by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) for the NEMA Lighting-Systems Index (LSI).
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