LED chip prices drop sharply CREE delays shift to 6-inch wafer manufacturing
According to China Semiconductor Industry Association's February 6 news, LED manufacturer Cree slowed the pace of shifting to larger wafer manufacturing in order to maintain higher plant utilization and profitability.
Although the LED lighting market continues to grow, it is still in the early stages of development, and the excess of LED chips in the supply chain has curbed overall demand and caused prices to fall.
Cree has begun a shift from 100mm (4 inches) to 150mm (6 inches) wafer fabrication, which will help boost production and productivity and lower chip prices. But Cree CEO ChuckSwoboda said it will postpone the transfer in order to control costs. The shift to larger wafer fabrication is expected to occur in the next three to six quarters.
In the past three months of Christmas 2011, Cree achieved a total revenue of $304 million, an increase of 18% year-on-year, mainly due to Cree's recent acquisition of RuudLighting. However, during this period Cree's LED product sales decreased by 8% year-on-year.
During the quarter, Cree's lighting product sales reached $95.7 million, while quarterly lighting sales between the acquisition of Ruud were approximately $20 million.
Swoboda said: "The second quarter results reflect the strength of our lighting product line and the strong growth in sales of indoor and outdoor products. In this persistently difficult market environment, performance proves that our strategy is feasible."
LED manufacturer SemiLEDs said that an extremely significant trend in the emerging market for solid-state lighting is the continued sharp decline in the average selling price of LED chips. This is good news for potential consumers, helping to improve the use of LED products in general lighting, but it is a big disadvantage for chip makers.
The decline in LED chip prices also affected Cree, which announced that its GAAP net income was $12.1 million, a significant drop from $49.8 million a year ago. Gross profit margin also fell from 47% in the same period last year to below 35%.
Swoboda acknowledged that the market situation is indeed difficult, he expects that the sharp decline in the average selling price of LED chips will cause some manufacturers in the industry to be eliminated. Swoboda said: "Although the LED market situation is difficult, our performance is not as good as the previous year, but it also stimulated the decline in lumen prices, promoted the adoption of LEDs, and may force weaker manufacturers to integrate or withdraw from the market."
Swoboda also introduced Cree's latest product, XLampXB-D. The XLampXB-D is half the size of previous products, with a lumens price that is twice that of the previously available LEDs, significantly reducing system costs in almost all lighting applications. The XLampXB-D uses Cree's traditional silicon carbide substrate to achieve up to 139 lumens per watt for cool white light and up to 107 lumens per watt for warm white light. Swoboda claims that XB-D is the most important LED chip that Cree has released in the past two years. Cree plans to put the first commercial design using the XLampXB-D chip into production in June (the last month of the current fiscal year).
Door Bell Switch,Doorbell Switch,Doorbell Switch With Light,Doorbell Button Cover Plate
ZHEJIANG HUAYAN ELECTRIC CO.,LTD , https://www.huayanelectric.com