Recently, industry research institutions announced the ranking of LED packaging manufacturers in mainland China in 2014. The top ten manufacturers accounted for a combined market share of 45.6%, showing that the market is concentrated and oligopolized. Among the top ten manufacturers, Nichia Chemical and Everlight still occupy the top two. It is worth noting that Mulinsen, a Chinese manufacturer, defeated Cree and squeezed into the top three in the mainland China market.
Mainland China has become a major market for global LED packaging manufacturers. According to statistics, the mainland LED packaging market reached US$8.6 billion last year, with an annual growth rate of 19%. Lighting is still the main growth driver of the market. With the rapid increase in the penetration rate of LED commercial lighting and household lighting, it continues to drive positive growth in market demand. As for backlight applications, as the technology of medium and large-sized backlights improves, the number of backlight LEDs used per unit area decreases, and the growth of LED TV market demand slows down, resulting in a decline in market demand for medium- and large-sized backlight LEDs. In the small-size backlight segment, the market share of mainland mobile phone brands continues to increase, and market demand is still on the rise.
Mainland LED packaging manufacturers took advantage of their local advantages. The leading indicator manufacturer Mulinsen defeated Cree and jumped to third place. In 2014, the industry reshuffle in the LED packaging market in mainland China continued, and the industry concentration gradually increased. The growth of foreign companies in the mainland market is showing a slowdown. According to statistics, the total revenue of international manufacturers in the mainland LED packaging market was US$2.35 billion, with an annual growth of 17%. Compared with the 40% annual growth in 2013, it can be seen that the growth rate of international manufacturers in the mainland packaging market slowed down significantly last year.
Continue to be optimistic about the growth potential of mainland LED factories. In 2014, the annual revenue of mainland manufacturers reached US$5.49 billion, an annual growth rate of 21%, which was higher than that of Taiwan and other international manufacturers. Benefiting from the rapid development of emerging markets such as mainland China and Southeast Asia, mainland packaging manufacturers such as Mulinsen, Nationstar, Hongli, Jufei and Ruifeng continue to grow rapidly, with annual revenue growth rates of more than 30%.
Technology and patent issues are the main bottlenecks for mainland manufacturers to enter the European and American high-end markets. By strengthening cooperation with international manufacturers, they will be able to make breakthroughs. For example, in January this year, Ruifeng and Jufei Optoelectronics signed contracts with Japan's Toyoda Gosei and obtained Toyoda Gosei's white light patent authorization. It is expected that more mainland packaging manufacturers will cooperate with international manufacturers on technology and patents in the future, which will help expand the European and American high-end markets.
ANNA