Neo-Neon Sees Bright Prospect for Its LED Lighting Biz

Taipei, July 14, 2010 (CENS)--Ben Fan, chief executive of lighting maker Neo-Neon Holdings Co., Ltd., yesterday said the company's LED (light emitting diode) lighting revenue and earnings for this year would surge further after posting an unexpected growth last year, when global economy remained plagued by recession.

The lighting maker, reportedly the world's No.1 supplier of decorative lamps, diversified into LED-lighting manufacturing a few years ago. Fan said the company's sales in mainland China for the first half of this year were about the same level as recorded for the whole 2009 thanks to accelerating replacements for traditional lamps with LED lamps.

The company made initial public offering in Hong Kong several years ago after relocating headquarters to the mainland in 1990s from Taiwan.

Fan based his bright view on the company's planned additional 13 metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) machines by the end of this year. The company is now operating seven of the machines to make LED epitaxy wafers, on which LED chips are made.

Fan noted that although the company's sales for last year slipped around 30% from a year earlier, its earnings and gross profit margin increased thanks to success in reining in costs and launching high-margin LED products.

He estimated LED lighting products to account for 30% of the company's sales this year, up from last year's 10%. The company's sales of LED decorative lamps generated gross profit margin of 41.8%, followed by LED general lighting's 38.9%.

Neo-Neon has equipped itself with integrated manufacturing capability for LED lighting, enabling it to make almost all the LED components, from epi wafers and chips to packages and modules.