“LED chip manufacturers benefitted from the lighting market’s demands and saw their revenues soared in 2014,” said Joanne Wu, assistant research manager for LEDinside.

Epistar led in the external sales revenue of LED chips for both 2013 and 2014 due to its technological advantages and stability in customer management. Epistar’s rival San’an Opto increased its MOCVD equipment capacity during 2013~2014 as well as exploiting the lowering price trend in the Chinese lighting market. San’an Opto therefore took second place in 2014 with its revenue reaching US$565 million.

Owing to their capacity expansion efforts, China-based manufacturers ETi and TongFang entered the list of top 10 LED chip manufacturers in 2014, respectively taking $161 million and US$145 million in LED chip revenue.

Wu furthermore sees demands in the LED end market will weaken during 2015. However, Chinese and Taiwanese LED chip manufacturers are still actively increasing their production capacities before the end of LED subsidy programs in China. Consequently, the current oversupply situation will become more severe when the additional capacities become available in the second half of this year.

On the other hand, the industry’s long-term development may gain from the intensifying price war since the competition will eliminate second-tier manufacturers that are without competitive advantages.