Taiwan-based LED chip makers Formosa Epitaxy and Epistar expect their second-quarter 2011 revenues to grow 20-30% on quarter, while LED packaging houses Everlight Electronics and Unity Opto Technology look to sequential growth of about 30%, according to industry sources.

Although Formosa Epitaxy saw sapphire substrate costs decrease slightly in the first quarter, its quotes for LED chips have dropped more, and therefore its gross margin for the quarter may slip to below 20%, the sources indicated. Mainly because of expected peak sales of notebooks during the early May Labor Day vacation in the China market, Formosa Epitaxy will see increased shipments of LED chips used to make backlight units, and therefore revenues for the second quarter will hike 20-30% sequentially to NT$1.3-1.4 billion (US$44.0-47.5 million), the sources said.

Epistar has received orders with shipments scheduled for April-May and current utilization of its blue LED capacity is 20-30% higher than in January-February, the sources noted.

Everlight's overall utilization has risen to about 80%, while Unity Opto has seen increasing orders for LED backlight units for LCD TVs as well as T5 and T8 LED light tubes, the sources indicated.

By: DocMemory
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