Growth of the LED market: Q&A with James Jenson, vice president of LED business unit at Veeco Printer friendly Related stories Comments Email to a friend Latest news Siu Han, Taipei; Jackie Chang, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 13 December 2011] US-based MOCVD equipment provider Veeco currently ranks number one in global market share with 50%. Digitimes sat down with James T Jenson, vice president of Veeco's LED business unit to talk about the company's plans in Asia and how Veeco views the market in 2012. Q: Why did Veeco decide to set up a technology center in Taiwan? A: The Taiwan Technology Center (TTC) is the first technology center that Veeco set up in Asia. The main reason is because Taiwan has been a leading country in the production of LEDs. A technology center in Taiwan can help us to serve customers with better speed. TTC currently has 40 employees and is equipped with Veeco's latest systems such as the multi-chamber MaxBright MOCVD system. Q: What are your plans for the Asia market? Are there differences in the plans for the Taiwan and South Korea markets? A: In Fall 2010, Veeco announced plans to expand the Asia market. Currently we have been investing over US$30 million into the Asia market. In addition to TTC, we plan to set up a Korea Development Center (KDC) in Seoul in 2012. KDC will operate in similar ways as TTC. The purpose of KDC is also to assist local clients. South Korea has a few major clients while Taiwan's clients are mostly small- and medium-size firms. Hence KDC will become more independent in developing technologies that suit local customers. TTC will focus more on support. Q: Veeco has begun to sell products in the Japan market, but has the difference in product standards brought any obstacles? A: Veeco used to sell products into the Japan market through local representatives, now we are selling directly and have been adding more staff to provide a better service. Despite the fact that Japan-based customers mostly demand 3-inch epitaxial products, they can simply change the carrier on their equipment to produce products of desired sizes. Q: What is the function of Veeco's China Training Center (CTC)? A: China has been eager in developing upstream LED epitaxy production and the biggest challenge has been finding qualified engineers, hence CTC's main function is to train engineers. CTC has in-house MOCVD equipment but it is not used for production, but rather for demonstration purposes. Q: What is your view for the second half of 2011 and 2012? A: Veeco expects 2011 revenues to reach US$1 billion. However, 2012 is unpredictable. Although we have orders, visibility has been low. One of the reasons for the low order visibility is the lack of stability in the global economy. To deal with such uncertainty, Veeco has been controlling inventory levels and financial capital flow with great care. Q: China-based LED firms have been delaying the installation of MOCVD equipment, has this affected operations? A: Yes, delays do exist and have been around since 2010. Sometimes it's not just because the global economy has been weak, sometimes it's because customers were too optimistic about capacity expansion. However, we have been delaying delivery times as well, so the effects have been minimized. In addition, within China's 12th Five-Year Plan, the goal to increase the self-sufficiency rate of upstream epitaxial wafers, and to increase the percentage of LED lighting to 20% of total lighting will bring in massive demand. Hence Veeco is quite optimistic in the long-run. Q: The LED market has been hit by fluctuations, how long before the market heals? A: Honestly I don't know. The recovery might come really soon because the price of LED lighting has been dropping which might stimulate demand. But it might also take years. According to statistics, Veeco's global market share reached 50% in second-quarter 2011 and we have become the largest equipment provider in the business. In fact, we predicted this in 2010. Currently, Veeco has the second-biggest market share in Taiwan, we plan to move to number one. Q: What is the growth potential for the MOCVD equipment market in the future? A: As I mentioned before, the China government has been supporting the development of the LED lighting industry with policies. This will also happen in South Korea as the government aims to have 60% of total lighting in the country be replaced by LED lighting by 2020. Q: What is the possibility for South Korea-based LED firms to continue expanding capacity? A: All I can say is that we have received some indications but we do not know when expansion will take place. However, the capacity utilization rates of South Korea-based firms have been increasing, we think there will be growth in demand. Q: What will be the maximum global capacity of MOCVD equipment? A: According to LED firms, by 2015, LED lighting will reach a penetration rate of 50%. This means there will be around 5,000 units of MOCVD equipment in the world. I think the market should not worry in 2012 as the LED market value will continue to grow until 2015. Currently market predictions of the maximum units of MOCVD equipment in the world range from 3,000-10,000 units. I think 5,000 is a conservative estimate. Was machen Sie daraus Aktienmensch ? Zitat: Aktienmensch vom 04.12.2012; 11:06 h: "Und auch kein Wort darüber, dass nach der jetzigen Flaute noch 3.000 bis 10.000 MOCVD-anlagen bis 2015 allein nach china gehen sollen." |