According to the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industry Alliance (CSA) data, after a year of slow growth in 2018, the oversupply trend of the upstream LED chip industry may continue until 2020, and China's LED industry will continue to face weak demand and The situation of overcapacity.
According to CSA, the total LED output value of Chinese manufacturers in 2018 is estimated to be RMB 737.4 billion (US$111.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, much lower than 25.3% in 2017.
By the end of 2018, China's LED wafer and chip manufacturers had 1,908 MOCVD equipment, up 12.6% year-on-year, with a corresponding total capacity of 12 million wafers per month.
In terms of the chip market alone, the output value in 2018 is estimated to be 24 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. Due to the decline in chip prices, chip value growth is lower than the overall growth rate of China's LED industry.
The trend of oversupply of LED chips has also prompted some Chinese manufacturers (mainly second-tier manufacturers) to delay their purchase of MOCVD equipment in 2018 or earlier. CSA points out that these new devices can add about 2 million wafers per month.
However, Sanan Optoelectronics, China's largest manufacturer, has increased its monthly capacity to 3 million LED wafers and will increase it by 40% between 2019 and 2020.