Surprises in the Worldwide Package LED Market

　　Strategies Unlimited recently released its annual market update of the Worldwide Market for LEDs. With a depressing market in 2015 it seems that year 2016 brought some relief to many package LED manufacturers.

　　There were a few surprises we saw in 2016 that is worth mentioning. First, the slow adoption of CSPs within the general lighting segment. At our Strategies in Light conference in 2015 there were major announcements by major LED players claiming that CSPs will penetrate the lighting applications within the end of the year or beginning of 2016. However, due to lighting manufactures’ preference of using more modular/integrated solutions and the low price point of mid-power packages, CSPs have only been able to reach around 2-4% penetration within the lighting space. Another interesting trend seen in 2016 was the price stabilization of mid-power packages. Even in China, manufactures were reporting that drastic price declines seen in previous year were not happening in 2016 due to price of LED packages being nearly the same as price to produce them. Some companies even reported slight price increases in mid-power packages.