LED Industry News: Philips and Indal, Taiwan, High Tech Lights, Dialight, Albemarle, Tridonic

Philips' acquisition of Indal WRTL is complete, revenues have fallen for LED producers in Taiwan, High Tech Lights has moved, Dialight has doubled its LED-lighting revenues, Albermarle has formed a new metal-organics business unit, and Tridonic has undergone management changes.


Philips completes Indal acquisition
Royal Philips Electronics (AEX:PHI, NYSE:PHG) and Indal have announced that the acquisition of Indal WRTL Exterior Lighting Ltd by Philips has been completed. With this acquisition, the Indal WRTL subsidiary becomes part of the Professional Luminaires business of Philips Lighting.


Indal WRTL has been particularly active in LED-based outdoor lighting projects, such as LED street lights in the borough of Sandwell, and linear LED lighting to a road tunnel in London, which we reported on previously.


To date, Indal WRTL has nearly 100,000 installations of Stela street lights, which were introduced approximately three years ago. According to the company, these installations have accumulated nearly 500 million operating hours, saving close to 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.


Taiwan realizes drop in LED revenues
Digitimes has reported that revenues of Taiwan’s LED firms in December were down 12.0% on month and nearly 20% on year at NT$6.54 billion (US$218 million).
December revenues of Taiwan-based LED chipmakers reached NT$2.64 billion, down 16.5% on month and 30.2% on year. Total revenues for 2011 reached NT$45.4 billion, down 7% compared to 2010.


The Digitimes report further added that December revenues of LED packaging houses was NT$3.9 billion, an 8.7% drop from November and a 10.3% decrease relative to 2010. Total 2011 revenues from LED packaging were NT$54.9 billion, down 3% on-year from 2010.


High Tech Lights relocates HQ to Las Vegas
High Tech Lights, a manufacturer of LED lighting products, has moved its corporate and international headquarters to Las Vegas, Nevada from Honolulu, Hawaii. The company is also moving its R&D, manufacturing, and assembly operations from Hawaii and China to Las Vegas and it plans to expand its staff.


The company, which had previously marketed primarily to Japan, is now targeting a more international audience. It aims to employ over 100 people within eighteen months.


Albemarle supplies MOCVD precursors
Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB), a specialty chemical manufacturer based in Baton Rouge, LA, has announced the formation of its Electronic Materials business unit. This new business unit has already begun supplying electronic-grade metal-organics used in MOCVD processes including ultrahigh purity trimethyl gallium (TMG) and triethyl gallium (TEG) under the new PureGrowth brand name.


The product line will be expanded this year to include other MOCVD precursors including ultrahigh purity trimethyl aluminum (TMA) by early 2012 and trimethyl indium (TMI) by mid 2012.


Dialight’s revenues from LED lighting products up 100%
Dialight has reported that its sales of white LED lighting products are up 100% year over year. The company has also announced strong revenue growth in its signals/illumination segment driven by adoption of LED-based white lighting products and LED strobe lights for aircraft obstruction lighting. For 2011, white lighting revenues were up 100% while obstruction lighting revenues were up almost 50%. As a result, operating profits in 2011 were up 30%.
The company anticipates further growth in 2012.


Zumtobel subsidiary undergoes management changes
Tridonic, the lighting component business of the Zumtobel Group based in Dornbirn, Austria, has announced that CEO Walter Ziegler and COO Rüdiger Kofahl will be leaving the company at the end of January. Tridonic’s sales in fiscal year 2010/2011 were EUR437 million.
While executive search measures have been initiated to fill the vacancies, the Chairman of the Management Board of Zumtobel AG, Harald Sommerer, will become acting CEO of Tridonic in addition to his role as Group CEO.


"In view of the technology shift to LEDs, Tridonic is today facing some major strategic decisions. In [the] future, the corporate knowledge base in the areas of semiconductor technology and electronics will be more important than ever. So the technology shift is having a substantial impact on all key business processes, as well as on the requirement profile facing top management," said Sommerer.