Epistar Mini-LED Update Update
Last week we noted that Epistar (3714.TT) was expanding its Mini-LED capacity in both Taiwan and China with plans to increase capacity by ~25% from 1.2m 4” equivalents to 1.5m, lower than original expectations of a ~50% increase across both regions. The company has now indicated that the China production lines will have a capacity (new) of 300,000 4” equivalents, which would absorb all of the new capacity we noted. Given that we expect a capacity increase in Taiwan also, we expect the expansion plans are now for greater than 25% capacity expansion by the end of this year. While not all of this capacity will be on line at the onset, Chinese capacity will start operation in 2Q.
While a number of Chinese LED producers are working toward Mini-LED mass production, most are still in trials with Mainland panel producers and in small quantity production mode. China’s largest LED producer Sanan (600703.CH) has been in such trials but will likely not move into volume production until 3Q or 4Q of this year at the earliest, leaving Epistar the first mover advantage in China. China’s largest panel producer BOE (200725.CH) has been developing glass based mini-LED backlighting products for both large TVs (75”) and monitors, and is said to be in mass production, but given the specific nature of the backlight (75” 8K) and the rigid characteristics, we expect it is more of a low volume product.
While a number of Chinese LED producers are working toward Mini-LED mass production, most are still in trials with Mainland panel producers and in small quantity production mode. China’s largest LED producer Sanan (600703.CH) has been in such trials but will likely not move into volume production until 3Q or 4Q of this year at the earliest, leaving Epistar the first mover advantage in China. China’s largest panel producer BOE (200725.CH) has been developing glass based mini-LED backlighting products for both large TVs (75”) and monitors, and is said to be in mass production, but given the specific nature of the backlight (75” 8K) and the rigid characteristics, we expect it is more of a low volume product.
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