LED Packager Unity Opto's April Revenue Sets New High

Unity Opto Technology Co., Ltd., recognized as a leading light-emitting diode (LED) packager in Taiwan, had consolidated revenue of NT$936 million (US$30.19 million) in April, increasing 8 percent from a month earlier and 17 percent from the same month of last year to hit fresh all-time high.

The company ascribes such impressive growth mostly to brisk demand for its lighting products, which have kept the company's production lines humming since the Chinese New Year, when many workers in Taiwan were given dayoff Feb. 18-23.

Also, considerable orders from Japanese manufacturers of LED backlights used in high-end smartphones drove the sales increase.

The April result helps swell the company's consolidated revenue for the first four months of this year to NT$3.27 billion (US$105.70 million), surging 20.7 percent from NT$2.71 billion (US$87.58 million) it had in the same period of 2014.

Unity Opto executives say this year's high season for the LED lighting market arrives in the second quarter, a quarter earlier than in the past mostly due to thriving demand in Europe and America.

They project the company's shipments of LED lighting to continue climbing throughout the second quarter thanks to the early arrival of the high season, to drive the company's monthly revenue from lighting-LED sales to grow at a double-digit rate beginning April.

The executives attribute the company's success in winning plentiful orders in the American and European markets to the company's cost-effective designs and unique technologies. They estimate LED-lighting sales to account for more than half of its consolidated revenue in the second quarter after such sales had exceeded its LED backlight sales for the first time in the first quarter.

In the third quarter, the company will release LED light bulbs with good price-performance ratio achieved by structure with improved cost-effectiveness.

Industry executives say Unity Opto is already Taiwan's No.1 LED-bulb supplier in terms of shipment volume, which now tops 5-6 million units a month. The company has unseated China's Hi-Light Lighting Co., Ltd. as the biggest supplier of LED bulbs to big American retailers.

Unity Opto Chairman Alpha Wu says the company has introduced some unique drive ICs to make its bulbs less expensive, and that the market is looking up for Taiwan's LED industry as China's authorities have ended financing its LED industry, which tilts the playing field to favor Chinese suppliers.

Industry executives predict the upbeat trend for the island's LED industry to continue throughout this November.