LED Bulb Shipment Forecast to Spike 68% YoY in 2014

Market consultant LEDinside projects global shipments of LED bulbs to soar 68% year on year to 1.32 billion units in 2014 in anticipation that LED bulbs to replace 40W and 60W incandescent bulbs will fall  below US$10 apiece, to fuel higher consumption.

Industry executives estimate market penetration of LED lighting to increase to 15-20% in 2014 regardless of lukewarm sales in the third quarter of 2013 at most of Taiwan's LED makers. Taiwan is the world's No.1 LED supplier in terms of production volume.

LEDinside points out that international big names along the supply chain as furniture vendor IKEA and lamp maker Philips are vigorously promoting LED lamps.

The market consultant points out that average retail price for 40W replacement LED bulb has dropped 2.3% to US$15.8 worldwide, with the price dipping below US$10 in Britain in October 2013.

Average selling price of LED bulbs to replace 60W incandescent bulbs inched up 1.2% in October to US$21.6 worldwide because of the influence of foreign exchange rates in some economies and the ends of promotional discount of the bulbs in some markets.

Industry executives expect China's LED industry to see reckless competition into 2014 due to lack of integration among manufacturers there, unlike the ongoing integration among Taiwan's LED makers. However, they feel that the mainland's LED packaging sector would do better than its  LED chip-making sector, in which many big players are still  irrationally competing to  expand. (KL)