More price volatility in LEDs in 2Q 2010

TAIWAN: According to LEDinside’s latest price trend report, the growing shipment in LED backlight and lighting application led to a shortage in the chip supply. As a result, the white LED prices remained flat in 4Q09: Prices for backlighting dropped slightly by 1-3 percent, while prices of high power LEDs remained stable.

However, LEDinside expect more price volatility in LEDs used in LCD TV backlighting, as this field is drawing more attention, hence its market potential and packaging supply will likely expand.

For the mature LED-backlit Netbook market in 4Q09, mainstream package types are 3020 and 3014, priced between $0.04 to $0.07, down by 2 percent. On an annual basis, prices declined by around 20 percent in 2009.

LED backlight modules have gradually replaced CCFL to become the mainstream backlight for notebooks. The LED price for NB application in 4Q slightly fell 1 percent to $0.07~0.11, and the mainstream package types are 0.8t and 3014.

On the other hand, 90-100 lm/w gradually became the mainstream in high power LED for lighting applications. The growing demand in large-sized LED backlit products and lighting applications has led to the tight supply of high power LEDs. Hence, prices in 4Q09 remained flat at $0.6~2.

However, the price of high power LEDs declined more significantly in the first half of 2009; and on an annual basis, prices declined by 40 percent in 2009.

With robust demand for backlighting and lighting applications, chip supply should still be tight in the short term, given the long lead time for capacity expansion. Therefore, in the coming quarter, there should be no pressure to lower prices, noted LEDinside.