The U.S. Department of Commerce that on March 1 announced changes to the antidumping duties (AD) that are imposed on PV cell imports from Taiwanese suppliers during the 2014~2016 period. According to the preliminary result of the case review, the Commerce Department decided to substantially lower the AD rates for Taiwanese cell suppliers. The initial ruling had some of them pay the highest rate of 27.55% and the lowest rate of 11.45%, while the rest would have to pay 19.5%. The adjustments made after the review cut the highest rate down to 4.2% and the lowest rate down to 3.5%. The majority of Taiwanese suppliers, however, now pay a rate of 4.09%.
The respective additions of 3D Sensing and iris recognition into the next-generation iPhone devices and Samsung Galaxy S8 will generate a new wave of demand for IR (infrared) LEDs used in optical sensors. LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, has recently published its 2017 IR LED/IR Laser and Optical Sensor Market Report. In the report, LEDinside states that that the global market scale of IR LED and IR laser components used in iris and facial recognition solutions will grow from US$145 million in 2017 to US$827 million in 2025. The CAGR in the forecast period is estimated at 24%.
Since November 2016, LED light bulb vendors have lowered prices of their products for regional markets including Japan, Europe and the U.S. as part of their year-end promotions. The downtrend in prices became more noticeable at the end of the year. “Compared with the prior month, global average sales price (ASP) of 40-watt equivalent LED light bulb fell 3% to US$8.7 in December,” said Allen Yu, analyst for LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. “The global ASP of 60-watt equivalent LED light bulbs also saw a monthly decline of 2.4%, arriving around US$12.”
The LED chip subsidiary of China’s major LED supplier San’an Optoelectronics has just announced an 8% price hike for some its products that will take effect on January 10, 2017. Following four major waves of price increases implemented by participants in the global LED industry during 2016, San’an Opto is now leading another major price adjustment at the start of 2017. LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, believes that the main factor behind these price hikes is the rising costs of raw materials in the upstream of the supply chain, while warming demand and extremely low quotes also made the price increases more noticeable. LEDinside furthermore expects the material and manufacturing costs will play a central role in the pricing among industry players.
The value of the global LED market is estimated to grow 3.4% annually to US$14.8 billion in 2016, according to LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The LED industry will again be under tremendous competitive pressure in 2017, and participants will need to accelerate their entries into more profitable niche markets such as fine-pitch LED displays, UV LEDs and IR LEDs. LEDinside forecasts that the value of the global LED market will total US$15.4 billion, up 4% from 2016.
