Two Penang-based public-listed companies plan to invest about RM35mil to penetrate the general lighting or illumination sector and greenhouse lighting markets with new light-emitting-diode (LED) products.
Main Market-listed Globetronics Technology Bhd is investing RM25mil next year in the commercial production of LED modules with 10,000 lumens per watt and 140 lumens per watt for the greenhouse and street lighting industries.
Elsoft Research Bhd, an ACE market group, plans to invest about RM10mil to expand its facility in Bayan Lepas to produce testers to test large LED modules used in residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.
Globetronics chief executive officer Heng Huck Lee told StarBiz that the group’s LED modules with 140 lumens per watt and LED modules with 10,000 lumens per watt were now being qualified by customers in Europe.
“The LED modules with 140 lumens per watt are for the greenhouse lighting industry in Europe, which is currently using high pressure (HP) sodium lamps, which have a life-span of three years.
“These HP sodium lamps emit light waves in different intensity that is not conducive to produce maximum photosynthesis, unlike LED lighting which is capable of generating light waves that can accomplish the task.
“We will start production in the second quarter of 2011 to produce different colour LED modules with 140 lumens per watt, which requires an investment of about RM10mil.
“There are 94 million HP lamps in Europe that need to be replaced a year, while in the US market there is a need to replace 100 million HP lamps a year.
“We will also start commercial production of LED modules with 10,000 lumens per watt in white and other colours, which requires an investment of RM15mil in 2011.
“These 10,000 lumens per watt LED modules will be among the world’s brightest LED modules,” he said.
Heng expected sales from the LED segment to contribute about 30% to the group’s revenue in 2010, and about 36% in 2011.
Globetronics is also working with a US-based company to develop the world’s brightest LED module in cool white and warm white colour that would be 10 times brighter than the present LED module containing two LED chips.
Elsoft chief executive officer C.E. Tan said its testers for large LED modules, now undergoing qualification by lighting companies in Asia, would be shipped out by year-end.
“These are testers that could test LED modules of over 20,000 luminous flux (lm) using in-house technology.
“Presently, LED testers can test LED’s brightness of over 10,000 lm.
“We are also working on producing LED burn-in system that can determine the lifespan of LED modules using 350 milliampere (mA) to 5 amperes (A) of current.
“Presently the LED burn-in system available caters to those LED modules using 350 mA to 1 A.
“Last time we made testers for testing smaller LED modules used in the display market,” he said.
According to a market research report by Research in China, the LED market expanded dramatically, from US$7bil in 2009 to US$10.7bil in 2010, which is a growth rate unreachable by any other electronic product, and can reach US$20.4bil in 2012.
Another market research report by Strategies Unlimited said the high brightness (HB) LED market grew by 6.2%, supported by demand in display backlight and illumination sector, while the global semiconductor market plunged due to worldwide recession.
“The longer-term outlook for the total HB LED market is highly positive. The forecast projects market growth averaging 29.5% per year, reaching over US$19bil by 2014.
“The application with the highest forecast growth rate is signs and displays, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60.6%. Illumination has the next highest growth rate, with a projected CAGR of 45.4%,” the report said.
