Formosa Epitaxy Sees Bright Outlook for 2014
2013/12/31 | By Ken LiuFormosa Epitaxy Inc. Chairman F.J. Jian feels that the LED industry as a whole will continue booming through 2014 and into 2015 after bottoming out in 2013, thanks mostly to surging demand for LED lighting.
With this improvement, Jian expects his company--Taiwan's No. 2 LED chipmaker--to turn from making a loss to breaking even in the second quarter of 2014, due to strong demand for high-performance blue chips for lighting purposes.
Sales of lighting chips are projected to account for at least 40% of the company's revenue in 2014, up from 2013's 30%. Flip chips will contribute an estimated 15-20%, and high-voltage chips 20%--up from barely 1% in 2013.
Jian points out that Taiwan has outdone mainland China in the use of flip chips and high-voltage chips in lighting and TV backlights. He adds that although LED TV backlights have achieved a market penetration of 95%, the integration of flip chips into backlights is still in its infancy. His company, along with two others, has been certified as a supplier of flip chips for Samsung's TV backlights.
Jian points out that Taiwan's LED chips have unmatched advantages over products made in mainland China, which can hardly penetrate international markets because of patent issues.
Instead of deploying new metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) chambers, Formosa Epitaxy, which lost an estimated NT$1 billion (US$33.3 million at NT$30:US$1) in 2013, will manage to squeeze out 28% more output from its current capacity of 250,000 two-inch-equivalent of epitaxy wafers. (KL)
Formosa Epitaxy's Revenues (Q1, 2012-Q3, 2013)
| Quarter
| Q1/12
| Q2
| Q3
| Q4
| Q1/13
| Q2
| Q3
|
| Revenue
| NT$1.0bn
| NT$1.2bn
| NT$1.4bn
| NT$1.0bn
| NT$930m
| NT$1.4bn
| NT$1.1bn
|