The mid-power 3030 LED package products in the Chinese market saw significant price drop in March 2018, and high-power ceramic-substrate LEDs saw slight price drop, while prices of other products remained stable, says LEDinside, a division of TrendForce.
According to the latest data from EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, cobalt prices continued to rise in 2018 and soared by more than 20% in the first quarter. The rise of raw material prices results from short-term capital speculation and high supplier concentration. This concentrated industry structure may continue to push up the prices in long term. The soaring costs of raw material will be reflected in prices of lithium batteries and new energy vehicles quarter by quarter. This is also a challenge for the battery industry, which has been figuring out ways to reduce the dependence on cobalt.
The NAND Flash market has witnessed a slight oversupply in 1Q18. The growth momentum remains weak in 2Q18 although the demand increases, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. It is expected that the slight oversupply in NAND Flash market will remain and the prices will continue to decline.
The LED packaging market has witnessed steady growth over the past year, says LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. According to LEDinside’s latest industry report, the annual revenue of global LED package market was US$15.975 billion in 2016, and reached US$18.035 billion in 2017. Based on the revenue of 2017, the top three LED package suppliers worldwide were Nichia, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, and Lumileds, while MLS from China climbed to fourth place thanks to its significant capacity expansion efforts.
The Trump administration on April 4, 2018 published a list of 1300 Chinese exports and proposed to apply a 25% tariff on these products. However, the proposal would have limited impact on LED companies in China and Taiwan, according to LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. This is because the LED products included in the list are mainly intermediate goods, including wafers and backlight products. These products account for only a small proportion of all the LED products that China exports to the US market, while most of these intermediate goods produced by Taiwan LED companies are shipped to China.