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.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the global shortage of NAND Flash has reached its most severe phase for 2016 in this fourth quarter. Factors that aggravate the shortage include strong smartphone shipments, growing SSD demand and the increase in the average memory density of eMMCs and eMCPs.
Global volume demand for lithium batteries that power xEVs (plug-in vehicles) is estimated to reach 1.7 billion units in 2016 and grow by 17% annually to 2 billion units in 2017, according to EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce. EnergyTrend reports that the China has taken measures to curb excessive subsidy payments to domestic xEV manufacturers during the second half of 2016. Thus, the delay in subsidy payments and investigation on potential cases of subsidy fraud have impacted market demand for xEV batteries in the short term. With the investigation winding down, China’s xEV market is expected to make full recovery and again become the key demand driver for xEV batteries in 2017.
LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reports that the global average selling prices (ASPs) of LED light bulbs saw greater monthly drops in November than in October as branded light bulb vendors started to offer year-end promotional discounts and released new low-price products on the market.
Prices in the contract and spot markets for PC DRAM kept climbing between October and November, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. The average contract price of PC DRAM 4GB modules increased by 2.86% monthly to arrive at US$18 in November, while the average spot prices of DDR3 and DDR4 4Gb chips respectively rose 6% and 2% monthly to reach US$2.6 and US$2.53. The general state of the PC DRAM market in November suggests that the upward price trend will continue in the future.