Taiwan LED Industry Urges Cross-Strait Cooperation to Establish LED Flagship Brand

　　Li Bingjie, Chairman of the Taiwan Optoelectronic Semiconductor Industry Association (TOSIA), called on the 21st for promoting cross-strait industrial cooperation as soon as possible to establish a Chinese flagship brand company, in order to seize the LED lighting business opportunities in 2013. If this opportunity is missed, Taiwan's LED industry will find it difficult to escape the fate of being a contract manufacturer.

　　Recently, LED, DRAM, panels, and solar energy have been called the four "tragic" industries of Taiwan. Li Bingjie said in an exclusive interview with the newspaper that since demand for LED TVs was not as expected, brand operators had purchased all the LED chips they needed for the year by June, leaving upstream operators with poor orders in July and August, and the industry remains cautious about fourth quarter performance.

　　Currently, the industry is placing its hopes for the LED industry on LED lighting. Li Bingjie said that in 2013, the price of LED bulbs will be very close to that of energy-saving bulbs. Coupled with the longer lifespan of LED bulbs and lower electricity costs, there will be a golden crossover opportunity between LED bulbs and traditional energy-saving bulbs. Now is the best time to establish an LED lighting brand, otherwise Taiwan will once again fall into the OEM model in LED lighting.

As for how Taiwan should seize this critical moment? Li Bingjie said that many light bulb manufacturing factories in Taiwan still have no automation equipment and have long fallen behind mainland China. In 2011, 70% of Philips' light bulb sales were produced in mainland China, and the company formed joint ventures with local businesses. Therefore, Li Bingjie believes that the Taiwan authorities should subsidize the public to buy LED bulbs, promote a positive market cycle, and help Taiwanese manufacturers gain an early advantage in LED lighting.

Li Bingjie believes that in the future, Taiwan will still need to leverage the mainland China market. He therefore calls for cross-strait cooperation to establish a Chinese global brand, which will also drive the development of Taiwan's LED industry chain.

LED, also known as light-emitting diode, is a light-emitting component made of semiconductor materials. It is generally used in indoor displays, outdoor billboards, traffic signals, automobiles, televisions, mobile phone backlights, as well as remote controls for electrical products, automatic doors, electronic highway toll collection, etc.