Taiwan has surpassed South Korea and Japan for the first time to become the world's largest LED production area

On May 31, the latest data released by the International Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Industry Association showed that in 2010, to expand the production capacity of LED panels, Taiwanese panel enterprises had cumulatively invested 600 million US dollars in factory construction and equipment. By now, the industrial scale of LED panels in Taiwan, China, has surpassed that of South Korea and Japan, making it the world's largest producer of LED panels.

DisplaySearch data predicts that by 2012, LED-backlit LCD TVS will account for 50% of the total flat-panel TV market share. The huge market scale is the main reason why Taiwanese enterprises are increasing their investment in LED panels. In addition, the mergers of several major panel manufacturers in Taiwan, such as Chi Mei and Innolux, have led to a rapid expansion of the overall industrial scale of these leading enterprises. Their huge production capacity has already attracted large orders from SONY, Toshiba, and Dell. Under the premise of a significant increase in manufacturing and assembly orders, enterprises are bound to expand production capacity and increase investment in mainstream upstream products. Some analyses suggest that the expansion of the industrial scale can ensure the yield rate of LED panels, which indicates that the development of Taiwan's panel enterprises has entered a new stage.

Jiang Peifeng, a consultant at Digital China Brand Communication Research Institute, does not agree with this view. He believes that this growth is quite normal. The expansion of the industrial scale of Taiwanese enterprises is merely a strategic growth and does not indicate that Taiwanese enterprises in China have surpassed those in South Korea and Japan in terms of strength. Japanese and South Korean enterprises are innovators in panel technology, while Taiwanese enterprises are renowned for their manufacturing. It is quite normal for them to invest more in factory construction and equipment than those in Japan and South Korea. However, the current gap between the panels in Taiwan, China and those in Japan and South Korea lies in the fact that the influence of technology on brands is still not as significant as that of Japanese and South Korean enterprises.

In addition, industry insiders also warn that Taiwan's panel enterprises are still in a state of being small and diverse. For small enterprises, there are currently two major issues. One is whether the yield rate can be improved. Up to now, the LED panels used in small electronic devices such as mobile phones and digital media players have relatively mature technologies from major enterprises, but the yield rate of LED panels applied in televisions is very low. The LED industry is a technology-intensive and capital-intensive sector. Small and diverse enterprises not only tend to lead to repetitive investment but also make it difficult to form a united force. In addition, the panel industry has entered the brand era. Small and medium-sized enterprises that merely compete on low prices are either acquired by large enterprises or face the risk of being eliminated.