A panoramic map of China's LED industry in 2021
The industry's upper and midstream integration has basically been completed, and the scale of the upper and midstream epitaxial chip and packaging industries has declined, and the pressure has been highlighted. In 2019, the output value of upstream epitaxial wafers and chips in the LED lighting industry decreased by 16.25%, and the packaging scale decreased by 9.01%. In 2019, Sanan Optoelectronics accounted for 30% of China's LED upstream capacity competition, ranking first. The downstream general lighting field is the largest application field, accounting for 42.4%, and the penetration rate reached 75% in 2019. The market share of downstream display manufacturers is Leyard, but the market share is only 13%, indicating market concentration not high yet, and market competition is relatively scattered.
LED is the abbreviation of Light Emitting Diode, which belongs to a compound semiconductor component. Because LEDs have many advantages such as long service life, low power consumption, and environmentally friendly materials, they will gradually replace incandescent and fluorescent lamps in the future.
The industry's upper and midstream integration is basically completed, and downstream competition is fierce
The upstream of the LED industry chain is the LED epitaxial wafer and chip industry. Since 2009, the government has been heavily subsidizing LED chip companies, and capital has poured in, resulting in excess upstream capacity and continued decline in LED chip prices. After more than ten years of fierce competition, the concentration of the LED chip industry has gradually increased. Major manufacturers such as Sanan Optoelectronics, HC Semitek, and Aoyang Shunchang account for more than 70% of the domestic market, and the industry integration is basically completed.
The middle reaches of the LED industry chain is the LED packaging industry. Like the upstream, the LED packaging industry has also experienced price wars due to capacity expansion. Some small and medium-sized manufacturers have been eliminated, the industry concentration has gradually increased, and industry integration tends to be completed. At present, the main manufacturers in the domestic packaging industry include Mulinsen, Everlight, and National Star.
The downstream of the LED industry chain is the LED application industry. The LED application industry has a large market space and low thresholds, coupled with the price wars in the upper and middle reaches in recent years, resulting in a large number of downstream companies. The market is currently in a stage of complete competition. At present, companies in the domestic LED application industry mainly include Op Lighting, NVC Lighting, Sunlight Lighting, Foshan Lighting, Sanxiong Aurora, ENELTEC, etc. in the LED general lighting industry.
The LED industry in my country began in the late 1960s. Due to the fact that there were few application fields at that time, the industrial development was relatively slow, mainly dominated by scientific research institutes or enterprises with scientific research institute background, and the industrialization ability was relatively weak. In the 21st century, due to the continuous growth of my country's macro economy, the support of national industrial policies, and continuous breakthroughs in LED technology, the domestic LED industry has developed rapidly. According to statistics from the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering Research and Development and Industry Alliance, in 2019, the overall LED industry market size including LED epitaxial chips, LED packaging and LED applications reached 754.8 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%.
After years of development and improvement, my country's LED lighting downstream application market has gradually become stable and mature. At present, the downstream application market of LED lighting in my country includes general lighting, landscape lighting, automotive lighting, backlight applications, signals and indications, display screens, etc. In 2019, the output value of downstream applications of the LED semiconductor lighting industry is still increasing steadily, up 5.07% to 638.8 billion RMB.
The main areas of LED are general lighting, backlight applications, landscape lighting, display screens, automotive lighting, etc. Among them, the general lighting field has occupied the main application market for many years, accounting for more than 42.4% in 2019, and the highest proportion can reach 47.7%.
As the most important market in the LED application industry, LED general lighting has benefited from the rapid increase in the penetration rate of LED lighting, and the market scale has expanded rapidly. From the perspective of domestic and foreign sales of LED lighting products, the domestic market penetration rate of LED lighting products in China, that is, the ratio of the domestic sales of LED lighting products to the total domestic sales of lighting products, continues to rise, reaching 75% in 2019.